Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich und die Indianer

A Life Dedicated to the American Indians

Most citizens of the former GDR but also numerous inhabitants of the western part of Germany will know the movie “The Son’s of the Great Bear”. However, the author who created the novel that served as its source seems to be almost forgotten today: Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich, one of the most popular East German authors from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Erik Lorenz did intense and extensive research work in several archives, and he interviewed her son and former colleagues. In his book he shows how versatile and courageous Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich was. Her relationship with the North American Indians was characterised by lifelong passion and scientific interest. This reflected in her books in which she tried to give a cultural-historically correct and fair description of the Indians, based upon profound research. Furthermore, she actively supported the American Indian Movement what led to some problems with the FBI. Due to her unequalled commitment representatives of the Lakota tribe gave her the name of honour Lakota Tashina (“protective cloak of the Lakota”).
This book convincingly shows Welskopf-Henrich’s dedication to the Indians. It analyses the sources and inspirations of her works, and it contains many extensive citations and even entire articles by her that are published here for the first time ever.
With afterwords by her son Rudolf Welskopf and by Isolde Stark.

Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich

Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich (1901-1979) was author and professor for ancient history. She published „Die Söhne der großen Bärin“, a book, that played during the time of the last big indian wars in the second half of the 19th century and that was sold a million times. Further she wrote „Das Blut des Adlers“, that describes as exciting as realistic the life in the Pine-Ridge-Reservation.