Yellowtail, Crown Medicine Man and Sun Dance Chief
As told to Michael Oren Fitzgerald
University of Oklahoma Press, 1991
[Challenge # 8: A book with a color in the title]
This book wasn’t at all what I expected. I thought it would be a straightforward bio, like Lame Deer Speaks. Instead it was more of an ethnological examination of the Sun Dance religion of the Crow. Maybe it should have been my God’s Mansion selection for a different religion, rather than Harm. Certainly, it was more philosophical and dealt more with spirituality than the Aldiss book. It made me think, but it was also long-winded, which is more the fault of the editor than the writer. It’s also a book chosen for classwork in Sociology 101, or Comparative Religion, which may account for its dryness.
What did I get from it? The refreshingly casual nature of Yellowtail’s religion.
