Ji FU reviewed The Pipe and Christ by William Stolzman
A lot to learn regarding how the Christian religion relates to the faith of the Lakota Indians.
3 stars
The Pipe and Christ is a hard book to rate. It was very slow going at the begining, much like the pastors and mediciene meetings on the Pine Ridge reservation upon which the book is based. The medice men talk in circles. They aren't trying to be difficult. From their perspective there is no direct path to God.
I was raised in a evangelical family in whcih anythign that wasn't expeclictly evangelcial Christian was wholly demonic. Some of the Jesuits who went into the discussion with the medicen men feared this may be similar. But throughout we learned so much about how the two practices, the author calls them religions but I wouldn't use that word, are not only not incompatible but in fact the Lakota teachings could shed light toward the truth Christ taught and the love he's had for his people throughout generations.
Prior to reading this I …
The Pipe and Christ is a hard book to rate. It was very slow going at the begining, much like the pastors and mediciene meetings on the Pine Ridge reservation upon which the book is based. The medice men talk in circles. They aren't trying to be difficult. From their perspective there is no direct path to God.
I was raised in a evangelical family in whcih anythign that wasn't expeclictly evangelcial Christian was wholly demonic. Some of the Jesuits who went into the discussion with the medicen men feared this may be similar. But throughout we learned so much about how the two practices, the author calls them religions but I wouldn't use that word, are not only not incompatible but in fact the Lakota teachings could shed light toward the truth Christ taught and the love he's had for his people throughout generations.
Prior to reading this I had heard of the "sun dance" mostly through the work of Russel Means and the books he and others wrote related to the second wounded knee in the US 1970s. This book actually described the event in a way I could understand. With the [uaually young adult] Sioux man hanging himself on a tree, fasting and praying until eventually his own weight was enough for the tree to rip his skin from staying there any longer. In a way far too similar to the crcifixtion than any white man really wants to see.
While I felt like I learned more respect to native tradiotions, while my wife's family isn't Sioux they are of another tribe that hasn't been as lucky to have anyone still practicing the old ways, and I learned more about my own faith learnign the author of this work had a pretty shady past himself leaves an emptiness in the stomach such that I can't muster more than 3 stars at this time.