The Autobiography of a Winnebago Indian

Sam Blowsnake (S.B.) was a member of the Winnebago tribe. In this autobiography, translated into English by Dr. Paul Radin, Crashing Thunder describes the life, ways, acculturation, and the peyote cult of his people. He tells about his brother-in-law the shaman, adolescence, initiation into the Medicine Dance, marriage and sexual proximity, entry into the white man’s world, traveling with a circus, alcoholism, desire to count coup, the ensuing murder of a Pottawattomie, trial and jail, and his release on a technicality.