BROWN, JOSEPH EPES

(1920–2000)

LikeJohn Neihardt, Brown is a significant interpreter of theLakotaknowledge told to him byNicholas Black Elk. Brown’s bookThe Sacred Pipe(1971), based on interviews with Black Elk in the winter of 1947–48, deliberately parallels the seven sacraments of Catholicism with seven Lakotaritualsthat are presented as the essence of their religion. While this seems true to Black Elk’s evolving spirituality (even as a Catholic catechist, he is said to have supported traditional ceremonies), some question whether it represents traditional understanding. The family history ofVine Deloria Jr. lends considerable weight to an interpretation that sincere adoption of some kind ofChristianityprovided a useful and necessary, but temporary, means of survival, but never replaced the foundational “core of traditional religious ways.”