| Washaka: The Bear Dreamer Contributor(s): Lee, Patricia Jamie (Author) |
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ISBN: 0972900241 ISBN-13: 9780972900249 Publisher: Many Kites Press OUR PRICE: $13.25 Product Type: Paperback Published: November 2006 Annotation: Set in the early 1800s, this tale offers a rare glimpse into the Lakota tribe on the cusp of a great historical change. Little Chief, a young Lakota boy, dreams of a white bear tied to a tree and bleeding at the neck. His grandfather tells him he must watch for this bear--or something like it--because dreams are "Wakan," sacred signs from the creator. When Little Chief finds a white boy who's been abused by his father and tied to a tree, he knows this is the White Bear of his dreams. Based on the dreams and prayers of Leon Hale, a Lakota man, the narrative chronicles the rush of cultures coming together and--despite the love of family and friends--the ensuing heartbreak of a cultural collision. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 2005936108 |
| Lexile Measure: 830 |
| Physical Information: 0.51" H x 5.54" W x 8.5" (0.63 lbs) 238 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: It was the edge of winter 2005 and I was casting about looking for a new story idea. I like to write in coffee shops and was sitting near a window scribbling in a notebook when an Indian man about my age came to my table and asked if I was a writer. I told him I was. He introduced himself as Leon Hale and asked if he could sit and tell me a story. We shook hands, and he began. Leon told me about a dream he has had for many years. It is always the same dream; full of rich detail, sounds, smells, and sights. In the dream, he is a young Lakota boy living in a tipi village in the early 1800s just as the huge westward migration of Europeans into Indian country was beginning. Leon said that sometimes when he wakes up and finds himself a grown man living in a trailer house, he is disoriented and confused. Within minutes, I knew I would write his story.Over the next year we recorded Leon's dream and I went to work writing the story, adding detail and, in essence, entering a new world. The relationship between Little Chief and a white boy he named Mato Ska took shape and came alive. |