Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich Quotes

“The country is shaped by changes. When the bear gang breaks up their winter camp in the Paha Sapa to move to new hunting grounds, the Dakota have to fight the Panifight for the area with the buffalo herds .”

“In 1874, the U.S. government encroaches on the lands of the Lakota people. Mattotaupa, an Oglala Lakota man, gambles with Red Fox, a white criminal, in a saloon. When seeing he has gold, Red Fox demands to know its origin.”

“One night Harka finds a strange boy, the son of an escaped black slave, near the village and takes him to the village. He is given the name black-skinned curly hair. Kraushaar’s father is now being held captive by the Pani and has to do menial services there.

“He is the leader of his peers (League of Young Dogs) and very skilled, brave and talented for his age. The first whites penetrate the Paha Sapa , the sacred mountains of the Sioux - Dakota of the Teton tribe of the Oglala - in search of gold . ”

“The story beings in the spring of 1863, when rumors arose that there was going to be gold in the Black Hills (Lakota: Paha Sapa). The eleven-year-old Harka emulates his father, the war chief of the bear gang, Mattotaupa (“Four Bears”).”

“It is becoming more and more evident that the whites are building a railway line across the country south of the Platte River, which disrupts the buffalo’s natural migration route.”

“The Dakota decide to free Kraushaar’s father, but it doesn’t come to that. Kraushaar sees a large gold nugget at Harka, which Harka had once found by chance, without even suspecting the value and importance of gold.”

“The hero is the Lakota boy Harka, who later calls himself “stone with horns” as a warrior and Tokei-ihto as chief . The hexalogy is captivating because it is written with scientific knowledge and historical facts, but also contains imaginative and exciting stories about the culture of the Indians.”

“The Pani invaded the Dakota area because they believed they had superiority in possession of firearms. A fight ensues, which the Dakota win, but Harka’s mother is killed by a missed shot from a Pani rifle. However, the buffalo stay away. ”

“Since the Pani are at the service of the whites, they get buffalo meat and guns from them. Until then, rifles were regarded by the Dakota as magic weapons or secret irons (“Mazza-waken”) because they were still unknown to the warriors.”