When the tree flowered

"When the Tree Flowered is John Neihardt's mature and reflective inter-pretation of the old Sioux way of life. He served as a translator of the Sioux past whose audience has proved not to be limited by space or time. Through his writings, Black Elk, Eagle Elk, and other old men who were of that last generation of Sioux to have participated in the old buffalo-hunting life and disorienting period of strife with the U.S. army found a literary voice. What they said chronicles a dramatic transition in the life of the Plains Indians; the record of their thoughts, interpreted by Neihardt, is a…