Lakota Society

by James R. Walker, Raymond J. Demallie (Editor)

As agency physician on the Pine Ridge Reservation from 1896 to 1914, Dr. James R. Walker recorded a wealth of information on the traditional lifeways of the Oglala Sioux. Lakota Society presents the primary accounts of Walker's informants and his syntheses dealing with the organization of camps and bands, kinship systems, beliefs, ceremonies, hunting, warfare, and methods of measuring time.

Genres: Nonfiction

243 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1992

Reviews

[Stuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aside from the failures of early twentieth century Anthropology and Indian Agents to actually treat their subjects as humans, this collection of writings on the Oglala Sioux attempts to collect and present honestly first-hand source material.

The collection is fascinating both as a look into the lives and linguistics of the Oglala Sioux (especially the winter counts and the first-person account of the atrocity at Wounded Knee) as well as a look into the way academics and "Agency Men" interacted with the Oglala, here erasing, there correcting, never treating the Oglala as human.