Sun Bear

An Autobiography as told to the co-writers of the book, The Path to Power is a rare glimpse into the life of one of the most influential teachers of the Native traditions. Sun Bear, although born to the Chippewa tribe, considers himself to be "a representational" native spirit. Many surprising viewpoints await the reader in this gem of a book.

When I first got this book, I was very young, and I was quite obsessed with it. The concept of the medicine wheel was interesting and new to me, and the idea of certain animals fitting certain directions was also interesting to me. However, this book is very 'Native American' in flavour (almost exclusively), without actually giving credit to specific tribes that originated the medicine wheel, or distinguishing that many indigenous peoples in the Americas had no form of medicine wheel at all. show more

Sun Bear himself was an author of questionable motives, and is often described these days as a plastic or nuage 'shaman.'

I read this book now and find I don't really get anything from it. I can contact the animal spirits myself (as anyone can, if you know how to meditate or visualise you're pretty much all the way there), and medicine wheels do not feature in my mythology any longer.

This book will help you if you are interested in the symbolism of the medicine wheel, but I'd ask you to consider how much respect the cultures that he abused in the first place, before you use this as a resource. show less

Sunbear speaks elegantly of the Native traditions of the Bear Tribe. He connects the careful shepherding of the land by the indigenous peoples to the atrocities which our Earth is facing at the hands of modern man. Written in 1990, the information is prescient in scope.

No disrespect intended, but this book seems to be solidly of the "new-age/crystal-power" type [in fact "NEW AGE" is on the back cover, upper left corner]; that said however, it is an interesting read which can lead to a more in-depth and perhaps more historically accurate exploration of Native American ritual and beliefs.