American Indian Culture and Research Journal

American Indians are tribal people who define themselves and are defined by ritual understanding, that is, by spiritual or sacred ceremonial shapings. -Paula Gunn Allen Lame Deer Seeker of Visions, the first collaboration between John (Fire) Lame Deer and Richard Erdoes, was published in 1972 by Simon and Schuster. Since then, more than two decades have worn on and a few reprints have circulated. Yet Seeker of Visions has been largely marginalized by literary discussion. Among the few reviewers and critics, Geoff Sanborn and Kenneth Lincoln provide a retrospective evaluation of the book in terms of its formal unity and its humor. Sanborn identifies Lame Deer’s proclivity to group his stones into cycles of four. Sixteen chapters grouped by four gradually unfold religious beliefs and Lakota cultural features, creating “a meaningful structure based on Lakota understanding of numerology and discourse.” Lincoln sheds a different light, exploring Lame Deer’s humor as a comic discharge inserted into the wider discourse of Indian humor as bicultural product. Still, the book remains peripheral to scholarly attention, good only for quotation. To tell the truth, the book does not easily accommodate an overall analysis; however, Seeker of Visions does find cohesiveness in the Native ritual tradition on which Lame Deer leans. Ritual adds fresh significance to his uproarious life, informs the content, and helps disclose the sacred purpose of the book. Ritual, that is, Lame Deer’s ritual-based worldview, explains the dynamics of his life. Thematically,the interrelationship between one particular theme-the remembrance of his grandmother-and its analogues-his personal stance on food, anger, and the meaning of his father’s Lakota name-evokes the transformative power of ritual. This interconnection eventually reveals the ultimate significance of the book as an offering to the spirits for mankind’s sake.