My Grandfather’s Altar

Richard Moves Camp's My Grandfather's Altar is an oral-literary narrative account of five generations of Lakota religious tradition. Moves Camp is the great-great-grandson of W ptu?'a ("Chips"), the holy man remembered for providing Crazy Horse with war medicines of power and protection. The Lakota remember the descendants of W ptu?'a for their roles in preserving Lakota ceremonial traditions during the official prohibition period (1883-1934), when the U.S. Indian Religious Crimes Code outlawed Indian religious ceremonies with the threat of imprisonment.

W ptu?'a, his two sons, James Moves Camp and Charles Horn Chips, his great-grandson Sam Moves Camp, and his great-great-grandson Richard Moves Camp all became well-respected Lakota spiritual leaders. My Grandfather's Altar offers the rare opportunity to learn firsthand how one family's descendants played a pivotal role in revitalizing Lakota religion in the twentieth century.