John Fire Lame Deer - Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions

Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions

Lame Deer related an account of his life and Sioux life and culture to Richard Erdoes, the author of many books on Native Americans. Other well known Sioux such as Pete Catches also took part in this account. In 1972, a book drawn from this account, Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions, was published.

Erdoes's recorded interviews with Lame Deer, conducted as research for Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions, are part of the Richard Erdoes Papers at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Lame Deer was a Heyokah only for a short time, according to his own words in the book, Lame Deer - Seeker of Visions. The book was the first collaboration between John Fire Lame Deer and Richard Erdoes and was published in 1972 by Simon and Schuster. Seeker of Visions does find cohesiveness in the Native ritual tradition on which Lame Deer leans. Ritual adds fresh significance to his uproarious life. In an ongoing effort to cultivate his power, Lame Deer followed different routes, experiencing hard times and immense pain, but considered every fact as an empowering and instructing step. Above all, he learned that the interrelationship between human life and the universe is largely a matter of sacredness.