Crashing Thunder: The Autobiography of an American Indian

by Paul Radin

Paul Radin, one of America's first and most reputable professional anthropologists, lived among the Winnebago Indians for years, and for years he tried without success to interview the notorious younger son of the Blow Snake family, the Crashing Thunder of this book. At last Crashing Thunder agreed to tell Radin his life story, one that Radin calls "a true rake's progress."
Speaking through Radin, Crashing Thunder told of his childhood, stories of Winnebago gods, his appetite for women and beer, and his extraordinary friends and relatives, including his brother-in-law, Thunder Cloud, then in his third incarnation. Crashing Thunder also told of his redemption through his new religion, peyote.
To enhance understanding of the autobiography and its place in anthropology and literature, a new foreword, appendix, and index have been prepared by eminent Native American scholar, Arnold Krupat.
Paul Radin (1883-1959) was an American anthropologist who was considered an authority on the culture of primitive societies, especially the tribal societies of native North Americans. Among his many works are the books The Winnebago Tribe, The Road of Life and A Ritual Drama of the American Indians , and The A Study in American Indian Mythology . Arnold Krupat is Professor of English, Sarah Lawrence College.

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1983

About the author

He was an American cultural anthropologist and folklorist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Radin

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the autobiography of a Native American named Crashing Thunder. Mostly written down from his oral transmission. The language is excellent preserving the spoken style of the language.

Crashing Thunder was born in Wisconsin, in a traditional Native American tribal setting. As a child Crashing Thunder sees his community dissolve into alcoholism, social and economic depression, and eventually total dissolution. After this he moves around the United States. Eventually he gets involved in the Nascent Native American Church also know as The Peyote Cult, a syncretic religion merging Christianity and traditional Native American religions. The book does a very good job of showing how this new religion was formed as a way of Native Americans retaining their identity in opposition to the European culture spreading across the country. It also shows that this new religion was in conflict with the traditional Native American religions because it contained foreign elements like Christianity and Peyote (previously only used by tribes from the southwest.)

In additional to the interesting social and historical insight that the book provides, it is a powerful story about how a man's life slipped into alcoholism and despondency but turned around when he became involved in his new religion.

I had to read this book for school, but I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to all Americans. It is a fascinating primary source about an under discussed portion of American history.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally published in the 1920s. Not quite ethnography, not quite autobiography, certainly not fiction, this is the life story of “the notorious younger son of the Blow Snake family” and a clan member in the Winnebago tribe, Native Americans who used to inhabit much of northern Wisconsin. The narrative follows Crashing Thunder through his childhood failure to attract visions via fasting, his increasing interest in women, his drinking, and finally his conversion into using peyote through the Native American Church.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

The few pages about this guy's father's advice about women make this book worth your time and money.