Black Elk: The Sacred Ways of the Lakota (Native American Studies)
Wallace Black Elk, a Lakota Indian shaman, claims to be a spiritual "grandson" and former trainee under healer Black Elk (subject of Joseph Epes Brown's The Sacred Pipe ). In this first-person narrative, taped and edited by California anthropologist Lyon, Wallace Black Elk describes how the sacred pipe enabled him to commune with spirits, to hear the songs of rocks, water and trees. In a litany of miracles, he heals a boy who was unable to walk; the spirits, speaking through him, predict that Korean jet 007 (shot down by the Russians) will veer off-course; he meets "little people" who descend in a luminescent UFO; spirits disassemble a television set and float electronic tubes around a room. In his apocalyptic vision, "the people from the multinational corporations" will be cooked alive or will starve. Lyon does not provide documentation that might allow readers to evaluate how much of the book is fact or fantasy.Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.