Animals of the Soul: Sacred Animals of the Oglala Sioux

by Joseph Epes Brown

Dr. Brown is a renowned scholar and author of the bestselling The Sacred Pipe, in which he recounted the secret rites of the Oglala Sioux as told to him by Black Elk. In this work he describes the animal world of the Lakota people--a work fundamental to a legitimate spiritual ecology.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Native American

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Joseph Epes Brown was an American scholar of comparative religion whose pioneering work helped establish Native American religious traditions as a respected field of academic study. Best known for The Sacred Pipe, based on his collaboration with Lakota holy man Black Elk, he dedicated his career to preserving Indigenous spiritual knowledge. Brown taught at the University of Montana, helped found Indiana University's Native American Studies program, and published extensively on Native American spirituality and the history of religions.

Reviews

[Len]

Some time ago I read the books by Carlos Castaneda describing his experiences with the Yaqui shaman Don Juan Matus. I came away from that with a feeling of great relief that, in the 60s and 70s, I had never been tempted by the whiff of hallucinogenic drugs. Very little of ethnography, anthropology, or comparative religion filtered through. How different is Animals of the Soul: Sacred Animals of the Oglala Sioux.

Joseph Epes Brown had his own guide in the Lakota “holy man” Black Elk – I only use the quotation marks to indicate my own lack of knowledge as to a correct alternative, not as any indication of disparagement. Brown's researches and Black Elk's advice are used to produce a quite profound, if succinct, description and explanation of at least a part of Lakota Sioux religion and spiritual beliefs.

There are only a few points which came to my mind that a fuller text may have expanded on. The horse dance and ceremonies – this can only have begun in the 16th-century at the earliest, more likely towards the end of the 17th-century – did it develop from an earlier ceremony dedicated to a different animal, or did the Lakota have some form of religious template that could absorb new creatures, just as Christianity can absorb new saints or miracles? Brown discusses the images of the owl and the meadowlark among the Lakota. One is immediately struck by the similarity to views of those birds in European culture:

“Due to the nocturnal habits of the owl, however, there seem to have been ambivalent attitudes toward the bird, and he was also associated with death,” and “In contrast to the owl's association with obscure night-power, the meadowlark is connected with the clarity and good things of the day.”

Are these images common throughout the world or is it a case of Brown's European ancestry peeking through and distorting things? I recall James Axtell commenting on the use of alcohol by Native American peoples as a substitute for the hallucinogenic herbal potions of the shamans, thus allowing non-shamanic individuals to experience what may seem to be the sort of dream travel in shamanistic descriptions. In this book alcohol use or abuse does not receive a mention. Perhaps it deserved some consideration.

Anyway, I found this to be a fascinating study and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in America's past and Native America's present.

[Eric]

Brown examines the animals common to the Oglala Sioux and their significance in the Oglala value and belief system, ceremonies, and arts. His primary thesis is that the Oglala's conceptions of various animals serve as a prime medium through which core values of the Oglala culture could find expression. As such, these conceptions provide a window into the Oglala religious experience. In other words, by understanding the way the Oglala view certain animals, we gain an understanding into how they view their world, practice their spirituality, and understand themselves.

This book serves as a detailed examination of one aspect of Oglala spirituality that Brown outlined more-generally in his earlier work The Spiritual Legacy of the American Indian.

[Steven Howes]

I wouldn't expect everyone to read, let alone enjoy, this book. However, I have an interest in both Native American sprituality and wildlife so it was enlightening to explore the connections made between the two by the Oglala people. This book is a technical anthropological analysis but I found it quite interesting nontheless.

[Michael Delaware]

A very informative record about a very spiritual subject. I learned a great deal about the Oglala Sioux and their spirituality. The author does a great job in compiling the information on a subject that was taught as an oral tradition for hundreds of years. It has inspired me to find more books on this and continue my exploration into this fascinating subject.

[Rae]

Common animals and their significance to the Sioux tribes, particularly their uses in ceremonies and vision quests. I enjoyed this.

[Jocelyn Montalvo Cullum]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11950551