Mad Bear: Spirit, Healing, and the Sacred in the Life of a Native American Medicine Man

Founder of the Cross-Cultural Studies program in New York City, Boyd (Rolling Thunder) narrates a dramatic thought-provoking tale of his cross-country travels with Mad Bear, a Tuscarora medicine man. Boyd portrays the aging but dynamic-sometimes downright impish-Indian-rights activist as having a balanced and profoundly insightful, if not purely psychic, mooring in his daily existence and interpersonal affairs. Mad Bear brings a supernatural dimension both to his doctoring and his larger work of building tribal and cultural bridges, and Boyd skillfully juxtaposes Mad Bear's communal methodology with a Japanese healer and teacher whose emphasis is more one-on-one. Although sometimes subtly sarcastic, Boyd's style is generally one of easygoing acceptance of his unusual travel companion and his deadpan humor is a refreshing break from overly meticulous details about Mad Bear's dizzying schedule of plane flights, hotel stays and road trips. The beginning is rather disjointed, but the strands pull together nicely for a cross-cultural spiritual summit conference. (Dec.)