Joseph Epes Brown

JOSEPH EPES BROWN was Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Montana and a renowned author in the fields of American Indian traditions and World Religions.

Brown was one of the founders of Native American Studies and was largely responsible for bringing the study of these religious traditions into American higher education. A vital interest in the traditional life ways of the American Indians led him to the Lakota holy man Black Elk. He lived with Black Elk and his family on the Pine Ridge Reservation for several years, during which time Black Elk adopted him as a son. He was given the Sioux name Chanumpa Yuha Mani or "He Who Walks with the Sacred Pipe". During that time he recorded Black Elk's account of the seven rites of the Oglala Sioux, later published as the well-known book The Sacred Pipe, an enduring and seminal record of Plains Indian religious expression, still in print today and translated into eight languages.

The author of numerous books and articles, Joseph Brown passed away in 2000, at the age of 80.