Lakota Spring: A Native American Odyssey (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781933482248)

Two young men. One is Lakota. The other is not. The place is South Dakota. The time is the troubled Sixties and the Seventies. The issues seem clear and the battle lines are drawn. At stake is the sovereignty of the Sioux nations and that of the Union. A hundred years earlier these same issues touched off a civil war that tore the nation asunder. The question is if this will happen again.

Even so, life goes on beyond the conflict. People marry and children are born. These go to school and play their sports. After graduation many of the boys enter military service. Others go to college. In all this and friendships form across lines of race and culture. Yet the hard reality of Us and Them always simmers below the surface. The question is whether friendship can survive when it rears its ugly head.

Lakota Spring is a spiritual oddysey into the harsh reality of life on the reservation. It is the story of two young men growing up together and being tested in the forge of violent times and the clash of cultures. Yet it emerges as a testament to the power of love to overcome the evils of racism and intolerance, and to the triumph of hope over despair.