Raymond J. DeMallie is a professor of anthropology and director of the American Indian Studies Research Institute at Indiana University. Other volumes of James R. Walker's Lakota documents also available as Bison Books are Lakota Belief and Ritual, edited by Raymond J. DeMallie and Elaine A. Jahner, and Lakota Myth, edited by Elaine A. Jahner.

"Based on descriptions given by people who had experienced their traditional culture-most of it a way of life that had ceased or changed by 1900-Walker's papers are a unique and invaluable source for the anthropological study of the Sioux and for understanding traditional Plains Indian society generally."-Choice Choice "Classical material on the Lakota people and essential reading for anyone interested in a serious study of these people."-American Indian Culture and Research Journal American Indian Culture and Research Journal "DeMallie has done a sensitive, careful piece of work, and the documents as presented are both important sources and of interest to the general student of Indian history and ethno-history."-Western Historical Quarterly Western Historical Quarterly