Synopses & Reviews
In The Dream Seekers, Lee Irwin demonstrates the central importance of visionary dreams as sources of empowerment and innovation in Plains Indian religion.
Irwin draws on 350 visionary dreams from published and unpublished sources that span 150 years to describe the shared features of cosmology for twenty-three groups of Plains Indians. This comprehensive work is not a recital but an understandable exploration of the religious world of Plains Indians.
The different means of acquiring visions that are described include the spontaneous vision experience common among Plains Indian women and means such as stress, illness, social conflict, and mourning used by both men and women to obtain visions.
Synopsis
Volume 123 in the Civilization of the Americas Series In The Dream Seekers, Lee Irwin examines 350 dreams from 150 years of published and unpublished sources to describe the shared features of cosmology for twenty-three groups of Plains Indians. "The Dream Seekers adds a new and important dimension to our understanding of Native American cultures and of the central role that religion plays in guaranteeing their continuity."-Ethnohistory Lee Irwin, Department Chair and Professor of Religious Studies at the College of Charleston, is author of Visionary Worlds: The Making and Unmaking of Reality and the editor of To Hear the Eagle Cry. Vine Deloria, Jr. was co-editor (with Raymond J. DeMallie) of Documents of Indian Diplomacy, the editor of American Indian Policy in the Twentieth Century, and the author of Custer Died for Your Sins, all published by the University of Oklahoma Press.
About the Author
Lee Irwin, Department Chair and Professor of Religious Studies at the College of Charleston, is author of The Dream Seekers: Native American Visionary Traditions of the Great Plains and editor of Native American Spirituality: A Critical Reader.