The Death of the Great Spirit

A work of reportage and social history, this book examines the lives of Native Americans—particularly the Oglala Sioux of Pine Ridge Reservation—at a moment of profound cultural and economic crisis. Earl Shorris, later known for his advocacy of the humanities in public life, brings a journalist’s eye and a moral urgency to his portrait of poverty, displacement, and the erosion of traditional belief systems. The “Great Spirit” of the title evokes both spiritual loss and the broader collapse of indigenous autonomy under modern American pressures. Blending interviews, observation, and historical context, this is a searching, humane account of survival and dignity amid systemic neglect, of interest to readers of social justice, American history, and Native studies.