The Lakota Way: Stories and Lessons for Living

This is really a fascinating collection. The reader and author is an actual Lakota indian and historian, and the authenticity is both startling and refreshing. I really appreciated how you'll hear both the legends and the historical and philisophical meanings. I would have missed the meaning of a lot of the strange imagery and customs without that extra help.

You're not going to find vivid dramatizations or "Disney-fied" parables. Instead this is listening to a grandfather tell his grandfather's legends in a low and reverant voice. You'll feel like you're huddled around the campfire at the actual camp listening to this revered elder pass on these traditions. I haven't been so surprised and intrigued by a book on morals since Bill Bennet's "Book of Virtues". I'm going to have everyone in every generation of my family listen to this. I'd particularly recommend this to anyone taking a trip out west or a long ride with older children!

Some say that authors should not read their own books but I cannot think of anyone better suited to read a book by Joseph Marshall than the author. These are incredible stories that have come down through an oral tradition so how better to enjoy them than to listen. My first contact with Joseph Marshall was by way of his book on Crazy Horse; a very hard act to follow, I thought. Well, I could not more strongly recommend a book.

If anyone has any desire to learn about the heart and soul of our bother and sister Native Americans and what they have to teach all of us, this is a book to read.

Listen to this masterful storyteller bring the recent history of the Lakota people to life as you learn the fundamental individual attributes of an honorable and satisfying life. Hear the stories told by grandparents as they have been heard by children through time. Hear between the lines to learn the underlying values of the Lakota people. An excellent listen, again and again.

A wonderful piece of literature depicting the REAL heart and culture of the American Indian.

since young most of what we hear from the west is how to be rich, famous and powerful, and fulfil all your desires. but with these spiritual stories, you focus on others and their needs more than your self, selflessness is what really matters and gives meaning to life.
I loved the book and most of its stories,

Stories are best told by Elders, and the narrator who is the author himself, is very calm and slow, which gives the great feeling of hearing the story from the elders,
I feel like a baby listening to his grand parent telling the story, and makes me fly far away with my imagination.

Great work of Joseph Marshall

I am Lakota and many of us have lost our way... This book really helped me to find the right path to travel and the values that we hold so dear.

No Mocassins for her Humility

no

The first story of No Mocassins

I believe this story strikes home for those Lakota who wonder about our past and values. It is easy to get lost in American history and forget that it is written by our past enemy. We are not savages and heathens. We are people and we have values.

so sad society does not follow these high standards. every pre-teen should read this--after the parents do!

Joe Marshall is certainly a master storyteller. The author is able to let you feel as if the reader is there in the lodge among others listening to the great stories and legends as told by this honorable Grandfather, during those long cold winter nights. You are there; Joe allows your spirit to temporary sit among the Lakota’s. The legends, the stories and the teachings are all spoke with the enthusiasm and the signature of a true Lakota Grandfather. To learn the Lakota way will be your individual goal. I will be honored to pass this reading on to my grandchildren.

I am very impressed with the treatment Joseph M. Marshall gave to sharing elements of his cultural history. I've read a variety of Native American histories, and Marshall's rang true. He seems to see his reader as a friend--or at least a friendly student--who wants to learn. He refrains from beating to death the many painful lessons inherent in American-Native history: just presents them and says, "Here it is, take it and harbor it well." He doesn't seem to be overly concerned with weither I learn what he wants me to learn; merely that I learn. And that I did.

This collection of stories would be fine for older children to listen to as well. The author explains the values lessons behind each story with anecdotes. He explains what the story meant to him personally or how it is important to the Lakota people. I enjoyed learning about the Lakota philosophy and lifestyle (past and present) through this book. I definitely will look for other books by this author.