Native American Healing - A Lakota Ritual

Grounded in music, this book describes a Lakota ceremony in terms of the music used in each successive element of the ceremony from start to finish. Within this framework, the author, a widely known and respected Lakota singer, ceremonial leader and healer who happens also to have been educated at Dartmouth College and Harvard University, describes and expands upon the formative personal encounters with his Lakota elders on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota that lead him to his current understanding of each part of the ceremony. Strange as it may seem given the subject matter, Native American Healing: A Lakota Ceremony is a unique individual perspective on living well in widest possible sense of the word. These narratives function much like commentaries on I Ching hexagrams -- illumination and explication of practical applications of the natural laws that govern the art of peaceful and productive living.

Howard Bad Hand is a Sicangu Lakota from Rosebud, South Dakota. Born into the fourth generation of singers in a family who functioned (and continue to function) as traditional song-keepers for the Sicangu band of the Teton Lakota, Howard was immersed from birth in the cultural and singing traditions of the Lakota. As a young man, he was formally educated at the The Lenox School in Lenox, Massachusetts, Dartmouth College and Harvard University. Howard is a traditional Lakota singer and a sought-after composer of both secular and sacred songs in the Lakota language. He is the lead singer for the Heart Beat drum group, and owns High Star Productions, Inc, which produces audio recording and videos of native American song and dance performances. Widely respected for his knowledge of Native American Plains Indian singing traditions, he conducts workshops on Native American singing. Trained in the spiritual traditions of the Lakota, Howard conducts traditional ceremonies helping people of all races and faiths address physical, emotional and spiritual challenges in their lives. Described by others as a medicine man, he calls himself as a singer. No traditional Lakota ceremony, sacred or secular, is conducted without a song. Howard acts an intuitive consultant for spiritual guidance and for the use of the Chinese book of wisdom, the I Ching, for self development. He is the sun dance leader and the intercessor at the High Star Sun Eagle International Sun Dance for peace held yearly during the third full week of July for the years 2006 through 2021 in Red Valley, Arizona. Howard resides with his family in Taos, New Mexico.