When it was first published in 1928, Luther Standing Bear’s autobiographical account of his tribe and tribesmen was hailed by Van Wyck Brooks as “one of the most engaging and veracious we have ever had.” It remains a landmark in Indian literature, among the 1st books about Indians written from the Indian’s point of view by an Indian. Born in the 1860’s, to a Lakota chief, Standing Bear was in the first class at Carlisle Indian School, he witnessed the Ghost Dance uprising from the Pine Ridge Reservation, he toured Europe with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, and devoted his later years to the Indian rights movement of the 1920’s and 1930’s. The introduction is written by the Winner of the National Humanities Medal, Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve (Lakota Sioux), who is the author of 20 books, including “Completing the Circle” and “The Trickster and the Troll”, both available in Bison Books editions.
