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James Welch. The Heartsong of Charging Elk. New York. Doubleday. 2000.438 pages. $24.95. ISBN 0-385-49674-5.
WHEN THE OGLALA Sioux, Black Elk, traveled to Europe with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in the late 18oos, he and several others were stranded after they missed their return boat to the United States. Black Elk and his companions trekked across Europe and even earned money arranging and performing their own show. That they knew each other as Indians, and that they eventually found their way back to the United States, sets them apart from Blackfeet/Gros Ventre author James Welch's main character in his latest novel, The Heartsong of Charging Elk. Black Elk's abandonment became the seed for Welch's novel.
Welch takes the theme of abandonment to explore the possibilities of a Lakota performer...