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"Inspired by actual historical fact, James Welch's The Heartsong of Charging Elk tells the story of an Oglala Sioux who travels the extraordinary geographical and cultural distance from tribal life in the Black Hills of South Dakota to existence on the streets of Marseille. As a young boy, Charging Elk witnessed his people's massacre of Custer's Seventh Cavalry at Little Big Horn, followed by years of futile fighting and wandering until the Sioux were finally lured to the Pine Ridge reservation. But he prefers life in the Stronghold, living by his wits and skills in the old way." "Ironically, it is Charging Elk's horsemanship and independent air that cause Buffalo Bill to recruit him for his Wild West Show, which travels across "the big water" to create a sensation in the capitals of Europe. Charging Elk and his Sioux companions are living a life touched by fame and marked by previously unthinkable experiences - until he falls ill in Marseille and, through a bureaucratic mix-up, is left behind in a hospital while the show travels on. Scared, disoriented, Charging Elk escapes - only to fall into a series of events, including a love affair with a prostitute and a shocking murder, that will change his life utterly beyond his imagination."--Jacket.… (more)
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Native American joins the Wild West show, travels to Paris with them, and is abandoned. Knowing no English or French, and being dark-skinned, Charging Elk has a difficult time in his new surroundings.
The story actually begins at this point with his confusion and fear at the "sickhouse". He manages to escape and lives on the street but is found and turned over to the American embassy. One bureaucratic bumble after another prevents his return to America. He is eventually placed into the home of a fishmonger who treated him well and he learned some French and learned to love the family. After a while, however, he moves to his own place and yearning for a wife and family begins to visit a whorehouse. He falls in loves with a woman who isn't quite sure what to think of him. Earlier at the fish market a well known homosexual chef had eyed Charging Elk and he forces the whore to give him a drug so that the chef can molest him CE wakes up during the encounter and stabs the man to death. A very unfair trial follows and CE winds up in a remote prison where he becomes a model prisoner and learns to garden. He is eventually released again to a home of a farmer who treats him well. Natalie, the daughter falls in love with CK and they sort of "live happily ever after." Many more complications although the ending might be a bit too pat. Still a very good read and interesting look at the European fascination with the American West and the sad story of a man forced to leave everything behind and forced into a totally new culture.