Where the Lightning Strikes

I mentioned this insightful book last week in my post on our stop at Wall Drug in South Dakota. That's where I found it- on sale! Serendipity may often be the Spirit at work. Peter Nabokov has a great deal of experience with many different Indian tribes in all areas of the country. His rich knowledge lends a depth to this book that is unsurpassable.

I grew up in Pennsylvania in what had been a major Indian area. In seminary I spent a few weeks in a "cross-cultural experience" on the Navajo Reservation. We lived in the area of southern Wisconsin where some old and significant mounds were located. Last month we were in the Black Hills. All of these were found in one way or another in this book. It gave me insights into myself and the world I have occupied.

It also was another spur for me toward my own book on my sacred places. This book's subtitle is "The Lives of American Indian Sacred Places" and in so doing he tells incredible stories of spiritual tenacity as well as spiritual pilgrimage. Many of these tribes, as would be expected, faced a great deal of moving and change in their lives. What they did and how they managed to maintain a sense of spiritual equilibrium based on the sacred places makes this an important contrtibution to the field. It also helped me begin to focus on my own spiritual journey through sacred places in my life.

It is a gem of a book as he looks at 16 different tribes- four in each of the four areas of the country. The differences- and similarities- speak again to the deep human longing and, I believe, need for spiritual connections.