The sons of the Great Bear

The Sons of the Great Bear is an Indian novel hexalogy by Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich , which was particularly successful in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and still has many followers today. First a one-volume edition appeared in 1951, The Sons of the Great Bear , which from 1963 was expanded to include the prehistory of Harka's youth into a trilogy. It appears Harka, the chief's son and Top and Harry . The original story appears as the third volume and in 1982 for the last time under the title The Chief .

As of 1970, “The Sons of the Great Bear” consists of six volumes; (Volume 1: Harka ; Volume 2: The Path into Exile ; Volume 3: The Cave in the Black Mountains ; Volume 4: Returning Home to the Dakota ; Volume 5: The Young Chief ; Volume 6: Across the Missouri ). The hero of the Indian books written with scientific knowledge, but also imaginative and exciting, is the Lakota boy Harka, who later calls himself chief Tokei-ihto .

The author draws the main characters with their biographical breaks quite ambiguously, without the reader's sympathy for the Indian main characters suffering. Unlike other Indian narratives, Welskopf-Henrich's novel cycle is based on scientific knowledge and is significantly less influenced by good-versus-evil black and white painting (“The good red man versus the bad white man”).

Under the same title as the novel cycle, DEFA produced the also very successful film The Sons of the Great Bear in 1966 with Gojko Mitić in the lead role as Tokei-ihto. Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich wrote the first version of the script again; after disagreements with the makers of the film - a second version of the script was written behind her back - she finally withdrew her name as a screenwriter. Directed by Josef Mach .

In 1968 Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich received the Friedrich Gerstäcker Prize for this novel cycle.

The individual volumes of the series "The Sons of the Great Bear"

The main dates of first publication are given in brackets after the names of the volumes.

Volume 1 - Harka (1962)

The eleven-year-old Harka emulates his father, the war chief of the bear gang, Mattotaupa ("Four Bears"). He is the leader of his peers (League of Young Dogs) and very skilled, brave and gifted for his age. The first whites penetrate the area of ​​the Black Hills , a sanctuary of the Sioux - Dakota of the Teton tribe of the Oglala - in search of gold . The country is changing. When the bear gang breaks up their winter camp in the Black Hills to move to new hunting grounds, the Dakota have to fight against the Pani Indian tribe over the area with the buffalo herds . The Pani invaded the Dakota territory because they believed they had superiority in possession of firearms. A fight ensues, which the Dakota win, but Harka's mother is killed by a missed shot from a Pani rifle. However, the buffalo stay away. It is becoming more and more apparent that the whites are building a railway line across the country, which disrupts the buffalo in their natural migration route. Since the Pani are at the service of the whites, they get buffalo meat and guns from them. Until then, rifles were regarded by the Dakota as magic weapons or secret irons ("Mazza-waken") because they are still unknown to the warriors.

One night, near the village, Harka finds a strange boy, the son of an escaped black slave, and takes him to the village. He is given the name black-skinned curly hair. Kraushaar's father is now being held captive by the Pani and has to do menial services there. The Dakota decide to free Kraushaar's father, but that doesn't happen. Kraushaar sees a large gold nugget at Harka, which Harka once found by chance without even suspecting the value and importance of gold. He only kept it because of its shine, not because of its unknown value. Black-skin curly hair now suggests using this nugget in exchange for his father. When the chief finds out about the gold nugget, he takes it and angrily throws it into the river. The gold only brings bad luck and its existence must forever remain a secret of the Indians, otherwise the whites would kill the Dakota for that gold. Black-skinned curly hair secretly fetches the gold nugget from the river and the mystery man Hawandschita takes it for himself.

With black-skinned curly hair, he allegedly goes out to incantations to save his father. In a negotiation with the Pani and their white allies that was kept secret from the Dakota tribe, Hawandschita managed to get Kraushaar's father (foreign mussel) released and a herd of antelopes and a little later a herd of buffalo to be driven to the Indian village. Black-skinned Kraushaar and his father must swear never to tell anyone the real reasons for these events. After the successful hunt, the bear gang is relieved as they have enough meat again. Hawandschita is once again considered to be a great secretary, because the herds are ascribed to him and his incantations.

Mah-to-toh-pe ("Four Bears", Chief of the Mandan), painted by George Catlin, 1833

In Hawandschita's absence, the white painter Morris and his Indian companion Langspeer appear in the village. Morris is the first white most bear gang members see. Morris paints the Indians and is very respectful of them. However, the secret man is not well-disposed towards them after his return and so the two leave the village again in order not to cause disputes among the Indians. Meanwhile, a grizzly had kept the village in suspense: he had killed Mattotaupa's brother and two foals from the herd of horses in the bear gang. Mattotaupa goes out with his son Harka to kill the bear. The painter Morris corresponds here very closely to the real painter George Catlin , who actually painted a mandan named Mattotaupa and was a great connoisseur and fighter for the rights of the Indians.

When Mattotaupa returns from hunting the big gray bear, Red Fox, a white crook, is a guest of the village. He gives Mattotaupa and Harka a surprisingly large amount of presents by giving each of them a comparatively modern double-barreled rifle (breech-loader). However, he also brings Mattotaupa and other respected warriors into contact with the “fire water” / “magic water” ( alcohol / (“mini-waken”)) in the evening . Harka sneaks to his father's tent, which he had to leave for the night of the "binge" at the request of Red Fox, and sees how the other warriors become fools under the influence of alcohol, but his father does not. Little did he realize that, for the time being, Red Fox didn't give his father the same strong alcohol as the other warriors. Harka withdraws, but now feels himself observed, but cannot see by whom.

The next day, Red Fox is gone and Mattotaupa is accused by Hawandschita, who immediately spied out the binge on Harka, of having betrayed the secret of gold to the white man while intoxicated. Harka doesn't believe this slander, but the council decides to ban Mattotaupa from the tribe for it. Mattotaupa protests his innocence. Harka can't help him because he scouted the tent forbidden, and he wasn't there until the end. Harka now suspects who was watching him.

Before dawn comes, Harka secretly follows his father in his sister Uinonah's dress so as not to be stopped by the guards. Uinonah realizes this when he puts on her dress and she suspects that she will now also lose her older brother. Harka flees to his father in order to go on a journey with him.

Volume 2 - The Road to Exile (1962)

After their exile, Harka and his father Mattotaupa retreat to a valley in the Rocky Mountains , where they hunt and make weapons in order to survive. One day they discover Pani warriors, hostile to the Dakota, who are on their way to attack their tribe. Out of love for their loved ones, they disregard the ban on entering the Dakota hunting grounds and set out to help their tribe in need. Through what they do, they make a decisive contribution to the Dakota's victory over the Pani, but the hope of returning to their tribe is not fulfilled. The warrior old antelope spits contemptuously in front of his former chief and insults him seriously, for which he is killed a short time later by Mattotaupa in revenge. For the time being, father and son are returning to their valley.

After a large sandstorm on the prairie, the two exiles rescue a group of whites who got lost and would have died of thirst without their help. So they finally get to the log cabin of the toothless Ben on the Niobrara River , who has an ominous relationship with the villain Red Fox. Here they meet the painter again with his Indian companion Langspeer. When the painter is threatened with robbery, Mattotaupa rushes to help, but is then taken prisoner himself by the whites because they want to blackmail him into the location of the gold deposits. Mattotaupa remains silent despite threats that his son should be tortured. Just in time, Red Fox shows up, who is determined to act as Mattotaupa's good friend, only to find out from him at some point where the gold is hidden. He frees Mattotaupa and sets off with him, Harka, the painter and Langspear to a town on the Missouri River . They plan to spend the winter there.

They meet at a circus, and because the painter suddenly falls ill and has to leave town and Red Fox has also evaporated (he committed various attacks during that time), Harka and his father decide to spend the winter at the circus to be there to live and work. Other Indians also work here; they are treated very badly by stage manager Frank Ellis and also have to take on deeply humiliating roles in the circus. So they are supposed to portray the Indians as bad, stupid and clumsy people. Mattotaupa and his son Harka cannot be forced into such a role. They put together their own program, which is made possible thanks to their extraordinary talent, for example in knife throwing. Harka befriends a clown, who teaches him the English language as well as reading and writing. After the winter is over, they decide to ride back to freedom. At the end of the last performance Mattotaupa shoots Frank Ellis, the stage manager of the circus, in revenge for the humiliation and because of the bad and unfair treatment of the other Indians, who are also fleeing. They invite Mattotaupa to go with them, but he refuses. You are Dakota and from these he was banished. Then they make their way to the Black Feet , the Siksikau . The Siksikau are similar to the Dakota Indians of the prairie and have a way of life similar to the Dakota, their tribal area is located north of that of the Dakota in present-day Canada. There the two hope to be accepted into the tribe, and there Harka wants to become a respected warrior.

Volume 3 - The Cave in the Black Mountains (1963)

Mattotaupa and Harka are accepted as guests at the Black Feet. Immediately after their arrival they have to fight against Indians from the Dakota tribe as they attack the village in order to free a girl of the Dakota who was kidnapped by the Siksikau. There is also a duel between Tashunka-Witko , one of the most respected chiefs of the Dakota, and Mattotaupa. Tashunka-Witko eventually becomes a prisoner of the Black Feet, but escapes through a trick.

Harka befriends the chief's son "Strong as a Deer". They go hunting together and Mattotaupa also proves his skill and intelligence in target practice and on the buffalo hunt, where he cleverly manages to fool the Assiniboine tribe, who also wanted to hunt the buffalo. The hatchet is buried again with Tashunka-Witko and the Dakota for the time being, but Mattotaupa cannot forgive Tashunka-Witko for calling him a traitor. As with Old Antilope (Volume 2), he swears by revenge. He makes his way to his home tents to bring his daughter to him and Harka and to kill Tashunka-Witko.

There he meets Red Fox, who at times calls himself Fred and has dyed his hair black because he is wanted for various offenses. Red Fox tells Mattotaupa that he is wanted by the police for the murder of Ellis and that the Blackfeet are in danger if they don't extradite Mattotaupa. Mattotaupa then decides not to return to the Siksikau so as not to endanger the people who have taken him and his son in. In his home village, where he wants to take revenge on Tashunka-Witko, he meets his mother, who tells him that Red Fox must be killed by Mattotaupa in order to calm the Dakota back, only then does he have a chance, maybe again to return to his tribe. Mattotaupa, who is unable to see through the Red Fox fraud, strongly rejects it, as he would never betray a "brother", let alone kill him. He does not succeed in getting revenge on Tashunka-Witko, he can just about be freed from his daughter and has to flee.

There are violent disputes between the Dakota Indian tribe and land surveyors. The whites want to build a train route across the country and the Dakota see their freedom threatened and attack the whites again and again. Once they poison the river, killing some workers, others are shot or kidnapped. Red Fox and Mattotaupa head to the Black Hills. Red Fox hopes to find the gold there, Mattotaupa expects a second chance to get revenge on Tashunka-Witko.

In the meantime, Harka has made inquiries about the whereabouts of the father and decides to visit him. With Stark like a stag he formed blood brotherhood and promised to return to the Siksikau as soon as he was a man and could no longer be put in a reformatory by the whites. Because he also believes the rumor that the police are looking for Mattotaupa. He finds the father after having had a violent argument with Red Fox in the dark of the mountain cave. The father doesn't let Harka convince him of Red Fox's bad intentions either. They join the railway construction company and are recruited as scouts. A troop of soldiers is sent by the whites to avenge the poisoned, they devastate an Indian village, the home village of Mattotaupa and Harka. Only a few people die because most of the others have already fled, but Harka is forced by his father to kill his younger brother Harpstenah.

Mattotaupa as the outcast, outlawed and displaced person is becoming more and more a broken man, he is becoming increasingly addicted to alcohol. Harka is torn between love for his father and love for his home tribe. He meets Tschetan and Kraushaar and is shocked that they too call his father a traitor. He vows to make his father understand that Red Fox is a villain.

Volume 4 - Returning to the Dakota (1951 and 1963)

As a young lad, Harka becomes a scout in the construction of the railway and is involved in battles with his own tribal brothers. He receives the wampum belt of chief Osceola from a Seminolin, severely mutilated by the whites , whose message says that Indians of the different tribes should not fight against each other, but should stick together. Since Harka finally made too many enemies while building the railway and is tired of this life, he returns to the Black Foot Indians. He catches a fabulous horse, a dun, an outlaw like himself, and knows how to masterfully tame this horse by winning its trust.

Together with his friend and blood brother, he acquires the warrior title and bears the warrior name Inya-he-yukan ('stone with horns', a small shell that appears to him in his trance as a stone with horns). As a warrior he takes part in the sun dance at a summer festival of the three Indian tribes Dakota, Black Foot Indians and Assiniboine . Since he cannot tell the secretary to which tribe he belongs - he no longer really feels he belongs to any tribe because the Dakota see in him the son of a traitor and the Siksikau a Dakota - the Siksikau secretary does not pull the straps as usual under the skin, but through the flesh underneath. In the end he should not be able to free himself and die. Stone with horns can only free itself with the last of its strength when the sun has long since set. The audience interprets this to mean that stone with horns must be a liar whom the sun is now punishing for his insincerity. You leave the fairground without worrying about it. Mattotaupa, who had also taken part in the summer festival at the invitation of the black-footed chiefs, but realizes the truth and nurses him back to health.

Both are again faced with the decision of how their lives should go on. Neither of them want to go back to the Siksikau, because their secretary wanted to kill Inya-he-yukan. Inya-he-yukan decides to kill any prospectors he finds in the Black Hills and lead the life of an outlaw. For the first time, Mattotaupa allows Inya-he-yukan to kill Red Fox if he finds him among the prospectors. Mattotaupa wants to hinder the railway by acts of sabotage, since he was released as a scout. They both decide to meet every now and then near Ben's log cabin. Mattotaupa is becoming more and more addicted to alcohol. At a meeting with Red Fox and other prairie hunters, whom he has rounded up for a gold hunt, he is murdered in a dispute in the log cabin of the toothless Ben. Inya-he-yukan, who witnessed his father paying his gambling debts with gold and being murdered, realizes that he is ultimately the son of a traitor and returns to the bear gang to submit to the ruling of the council. The old magician Hawandschita decides that he should be killed on the torture stake. Untschida, Uinonah (his grandmother and sister) and Tschetansapa delayed the execution until the arrival of Tatanka Yotanka , whom Tschapa (formerly black-skin curly hair) had brought. He decides that Inya-he-yukan will not be killed. He is elected war chief of the bear gang by the council and given the name Tokei-ihto.

Volume 5 - The Young Chief (mainly 1951)

The toothless Ben's log cabin has become a fort with palisades , a watchtower and accommodation. Tokei-ihto and his warriors fight the soldiers and Rauhreiter in smaller combat missions in which they can kill several opponents again and again. The highest officer of the soldiers, Major Smith, an honorable officer, asks for ammunition and troop reinforcements. Tokei-ihto and his warriors raid the supply transport from Fort Randall to Niobrara . Only Lieutenant Antony Roach and his fiancée Cate Smith, the major's daughter, survive, as do the twins Thomas and Theo, who know the chief from earlier days and show him friendly feelings. They had ridden ahead of the column as a scout and thus escaped the attack. Nor did they belong to the group of white prospectors who killed Tokei-ihto's father, because hardly any of them did not succumb to Tokei-ihto's vengeance. To secure the escape of the warriors with the ammunition, Tokei-ihto undertakes a diversionary maneuver. First, he releases his prisoner, Cate Smith, to create confusion. Cate learns that Roach has not told her father about her arrival with the supply column, but it was Roach's wish that she come with him. Lieutenant Roach is proving to be a pathetic coward.

Tokei-ihto rides into the fort for talks after he has been assured safe conduct by Adam Adamson, a white man who is friendly to the Indians. His father had legitimately acquired land from the Indians. Now he threatens that he will lose it to the real estate companies. Adam Adamson respects the Indians and is friendly to them in his deepest heart. After Major Smith - Tokei-ihto - grants him free travel to the palisade, which is tantamount to murder, the latter jumps over the palisade and drops into the Niobrara River directly behind it. Then he swims through a known secret tunnel, which the toothless Ben had already created as an escape route and which is constantly inundated by the river water, into the old log house, which now serves as an ammunition chamber, and blows up the ammunition supplies at night. Shortly before the demolition, he escapes through the old (flooded) tunnel, which the residents do not even know.

Shortly thereafter, Red Fox appears at the destroyed and almost burned down fort ("This is where my friend Harry seems to have worked.") And sends the Indian scout Tobias (a Delaware ) with an invitation to Tatanka Yotanka and Tokei-ihto to negotiate . Tobias is supposed to look for the chiefs in the Black Hills. But he only works by necessity for the whites and is on friendly terms with his opponents. He also knows their true whereabouts and rides directly to the horse stream. He gets caught in a Dakota buffalo hunt, in which he is injured. The Dakota take him in and care for him. His presence can prevent Red Fox from extorting the secret of the gold warehouse during a secret arms smuggling from Tokei-ihto. He renews his friendship with Tokei-ihto and provides the Indians with the most modern weapons .

Tatanka Yotanka declines the invitation to negotiate with the whites because the great white father (the president) does not come either. However, he sends Tokei-ihto to the fort with some older councilors. When negotiating with the whites about the land that has belonged to the Indians for centuries, Tokeih-ihto tears up contracts that have already been signed. In it, other chiefs had already ceded their land to the whites under the influence of alcohol. For this he is captured and his companions murdered. An attempt at liberation by Thomas, Theo, Adamson and 20 warriors of the bear gang fails. Then Red Fox sends two men into the dungeon to murder Tokei-ihto, but he survives. The twins Thomas and Theo as well as Adamson flee to the Indians, where their conscience had long driven them.

Meanwhile, the Dakota and other tribes (also united with Tokei-itho's help) under Tatanka Yotanka and Tashunka-Witko are fighting against government troops. After initial victories, for example against General Custer on Little Big Horn , they run out of ammunition. Cheetansapa returns from the theater of war and tries to lead the women and children of the bear gang to the Black Hills ; but they are intercepted by dragoons led by Red Fox. The tribe is driven into a reserve in the Bad Lands. From now on they should live there from aid deliveries from the whites and according to their ideas.

In the meantime, Tokei-ihto survived the attack in his cell, seriously injured, and comes to after a few days. The painter Morris learns about it. He uses his good contacts in Washington and campaigns vehemently for the release of Tokeih-ihto.

Volume 6 - Across the Missouri (mainly 1951)

It is Red Fox, of all people, who, without knowing it, is bringing Tokei-ihto's release order. Seriously ill, he is finally discharged, also because the whites believe that he is no longer a threat to them and will soon die. He also gets back his fallow stallion, which no one else could ever ride. His big black wolfhound terrorizing the area, which he received as a gift from his blood brother Stark like a deer, also finds his way back to him. The Indian scout Tobias (a Delaware) receives the order to bring him to the reservation, but Tobias makes it clear to him that he will not stop him if he has other plans. He describes him as his chief, whose assignments he is only too happy to do.

Tokei-ihto is slowly recovering from his illness and visits his chief Tashunka-Witko again on the reservation; he reveals his plan to him, which he agrees to. After a few arguments with his old adversaries outside and inside the tribe, he leads the gang of bears out of the reservation on a difficult and hard way in the middle of winter over the Missouri to Canada. There he wants to buy land, cattle and seeds with the gold from the Black Mountains. This new, sedentary life is the only chance for the tribe to lead a free and self-determined life.

Indians of other tribes also join the group of the bear gang. a. Strong as a deer with a small flock of the Siksikau, Tobias the Delaware, a Ponka defeated by Tokei-ihto but not killed, but also white people like Cate Smith and the homeless farmer Adam Adamson, who are now a couple, as well as the hapless twins Thomas and Theo, who were already friends of the boy Harka and who agree to teach the Indians how to raise cattle and agriculture. They decide to cultivate the land together according to Indian custom. On the way across the Missouri, the bear gang is pursued by white dragoons, including Red Fox. Tokeih-ihto remains alone and finally avenges the murder of his father Mattotaupa by killing Red Fox in a duel, but also his Indian adversary Schonka.

In the meantime, Hawandschita's previous betrayals and false spells have been exposed to the bear gang. During the negotiations for Kraushaar's father (Volume 1), he was the first to tell the whites that there were gold deposits in the land of the Dakota. So he bought the release of Kraushaar's father, Stranger Shell. He also managed to get antelopes and buffalo to be herded into bears. He had made his tribal brothers believe that his magic had done this. That's how Red Fox found out about the gold and decided to visit, where he presented Mattotaupa and Harka with halfway modern rifles.

Hawandschita had already lost his magic power earlier, namely when he once watched young Harka imitate him, the mystery man, in play with other children and cast a spell over them. Since then, the spirits in whom he firmly believed no longer spoke to him and he had to resort to all sorts of tricks to maintain his position as a secretary or shaman of the tribal association. This made his hatred of Harka irreconcilable.

After the traitors to Schonka had destroyed his tent in the reservation, Hawandschita had to take in Tokeih-itho's grandmother Untschida with her. He despaired more and more. Untschida and Tokeih-itho's sister Uinonah obviously possessed the magic that he had lost when Harka used it. Despite all the assurances that Tokeih-itho had been slain (this was what the white twins Thomas and Theo, who fled after the unsuccessful liberation campaign, had protested), Uinonah was firmly convinced of the return of the chief and had already sewn winter clothes for him.

Because Tokeih-itho actually returned, put the tribe under its spell and led them out of the reservation, the old man resorted to his last trick. He uses Chinese fireworks supplied by Red Fox to turn the tribe against Tokeih-itho's plans. However, the whites who have joined the tribe expose this fraud. His tricks are finally exposed. When Hawandschita realizes that he has seen through and that he has gambled away his reputation within the tribe, he judges himself by climbing a stake and burning himself.

Tokeih-ihto returns to the bear gang and together they begin a new life in the Wood Mountains of Canada.

Influences

Welskopf-Henrich (like Karl May ), for example, used George Catlin as sources , but also "Ohijesa, the Indian Boy" by Charles Eastman and "Becoming an Indian Warrior " by Büffelkind Langspeer , all of which were highly regarded as ethnological works. Later she added details to the work, which she obtained directly from the ethnologists Walter Krickeberg and Eva Lips . From 1963 she also visited several reservations in North America and Canada. Other works of fiction that she dealt with were the books by Karl May and James Fenimore Cooper . She later distanced herself drastically from Karl May.

development

In 1918, at the age of 17, Lieselotte Welskopf-Henrich, according to her own statements, decided to write a novel about the fate of a young Sioux from the Teton-Oglala group. Four years later she began to put it into practice. The relocation of the work in a version from the 20s failed, however, because the American policy against the Indians was sharply criticized.

A modified version of the book was completed in the 1930s. A third revision followed from 1939 to 1940, which essentially corresponded to the first edition from 1951.

After the Second World War, she offered the work to Dietz Verlag, who informed her in 1949 that it did not fit into the publisher's profile. The Alfred-Holz-Verlag accepted the manuscript with goodwill, but repeatedly hesitated to publish it. It was not until the " Altberliner Verlag Lucie Groszer " in East Berlin published the novel at Christmas 1951 with a print run of 15,000 copies. The novel was a complete success: eleven editions followed by 1961 with a total of 210,000 copies.

After numerous enthusiastic inquiries, the author decided soon after it was published to also tell the history of the East German bestseller. The three parts of the Great Bear ("Two Worlds in Combat", "The Inferior" and "The New Way") were revised and incorporated into a much more extensive version that appeared in the early 1960s. Welskopf-Henrich also made significant changes to the parts that had already appeared. In addition to a linguistic revision (modernized grammar and choice of words) and the removal (especially at the end) or rewriting (e.g. the legend of the stone man) of entire passages, Welskopf-Henrich also filled in "temporal gaps", such as Harka's return the Dakota after the assassination of Mattotaupa. Existing allusions (such as the waterhole in the block house of the toothless Ben), descriptions (buffalo hunt, sun dance, bear dance, scalp dance, etc.) or people (such as the twins Thomas and Theo or Donner von Berge) were given a broader space with their own storylines in the more extensive version, which made the plot more consistent overall. The drama was also carefully intensified in various places (e.g. Tokei-itho's “return” to the reservation, the unsuccessful attempt to escape from the fort).

A noticeable shift in focus between the earlier and later versions is noticeable. The recurring emphasis on the Eurocentric term that the social order of the prairie Indians was a kind of "primitive communism", of "cooperative" agriculture and other ideological issues, still shape the original version of the "sons of the great she-bear" to a large extent. In the newer and more extensive version, Welskopf-Henrich has almost completely removed such aspects.

At the beginning of the 1960s, the Altberliner Verlag published the first complete edition of The Sons of the Great Bear in three volumes:

1. Harka, the chief's son (1962)
2. Top and Harry (1963)
3. The Sons of the Great Bear (1963)

In the Federal Republic of Germany, the novel cycle was published for the first time as a six-volume edition by the Stuttgart Union Verlag from 1964. The first volume appeared there with a longer name. She had already granted the licenses for publication by Austrian and West German publishers in the 1950s. The three-volume edition, which had appeared shortly before in the GDR, was divided into two volumes:

1. Harka, the chief's son (1964)
2. The Road to Exile (1965)
3. The Cave in the Black Mountains (1966)
4. Homecoming to the Dakota (1966)
5. The Young Chief (1967)
6. Across the Missouri (1967)

Among the individual titles known today, the cycle appeared for the first time in the GDR, again by Altberliner Verlag:

1. Harka (1972)
2. The Road to Exile (1972)
3. The Cave in the Black Mountains (1971)
4. Return to the Dakota (1971)
5. The Young Chief (1974)
6. Across the Missouri (1974)

Further editions in six volumes were published by Eulenspiegel-Verlag and most recently in 2017 by Palisander Verlag .

The genesis of the work has been well documented by the author and is in numerous writings in her archive, which is now kept in the archive of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences . A summary of the archive can be found in the article “Tokei-ihto vs. Winnetou ”by Thomas Kramer (issue 1/2001 of the Humboldt spectrum ).

Others

In the book "In the footsteps of the sons of the Great Bear" the authors Till Otto and the cultural scientist Uli Otto examine the historical background of the 6-volume cycle of novels. Among other things, they point out the meticulously incorporated historical background of the novels by Welskopf-Henrich and try to upgrade them, especially with regard to the much better known, idealized works of Karl May. - In the book "Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich and the Indians", which is named below under literature , this topic is taken up and further developed on the basis of numerous documents stored in the archive of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. In addition, it sheds light on the background of the novel The Blood of the Eagle , in which the historical events on the Pine Ridge reservation from the mid-1960s to the occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973 are presented in a realistic way.

The novel cycle The Blood of the Eagle by Welskopf-Henrich is about the life of Harka's descendants in the reservation. Harka himself appears in the first two volumes as an ancient man under the name "Harry Okute". It is interesting that the author was personally acquainted with an Indian named John Okute . She met this writer on a trip to Canada in 1963 and later received a manuscript from his widow. In the first half of the 20th century, he saved the traditions of his tribe from oblivion through oral reports and written records.

Before his death, "Harry Okute" tells his great-grandson Joe King about his life, which briefly touches upon the fate of some of the characters in the novel: Tschapa Kraushaar became a successful rancher in Canada; Cheetansapa could not come to terms with the new life; he died fighting with the Assiniboine for the last herds of buffalo. Harka married Sitopanaki, the sister of his blood brother Donner vom Berge. He married Harka's sister Uinonah. A descendant of Uinonah later becomes the Blackfoot chief. Harkas and Sitopanaki's son dies as a child in a riding accident when he illegally tried to ride Harka's black stallion. But then there was probably a daughter whose grandson is Joe King.

Harka returned to the United States shortly before his death to be buried near his friend Tashunka-Witko.

In January 2008, an audiobook version of the novel cycle appeared on MP3 - CD . The books were read by Jesko Döring .

filming

The novel cycle was filmed in 1965/1966 under the same name The Sons of the Great Bear in the GDR by the DEFA studio for feature films in Potsdam-Babelsberg, (Artistic Working Group Red Circle ). The film is essentially based on storylines from volumes 5 The Young Chief and 6 About the Missouri . The novelist Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich is considered to be the screenwriter for the film. Directed by Josef Mach .

Gojko Mitić took the main role as chief Tokei-ihto . The then 26-year-old practiced handling horses while filming and, as a former stuntman, also practiced all the action scenes himself. With around 5 million viewers in 1966, The Sons of the Great Bear became the most successful DEFA film of the year. A total of 9,442,395 viewers saw the film in the GDR's cinemas (cinemas).

The extremely successful film production became the basis for further DEFA Indian films .

radio play

The novel cycle was produced by Süddeutscher Rundfunk under the direction of Harry Schweizer as an eight-part radio play series entitled The Sons of the Great Bear and broadcast from January 1, 1967 to February 19, 1967.

literature

• Erik Lorenz : Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich and the Indians. A biography. Rosewood, Chemnitz 2009, ISBN 978-3-938305-14-0 .
• Uli Otto and Till Otto: In the footsteps of the Great Bear's sons. Investigation of the historical and cultural-historical background of the youth books "The Sons of the Great Bear" by Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich. Kern, Regensburg 2001, ISBN 3-934983-03-0 .
• John Okute Sica : The Miracle of the Little Bighorn . Rosewood, Chemnitz 2009, ISBN 978-3-938305-10-2 .

Web links

• The film "The Sons of the Great Bear" ( Memento from February 10, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Thomas Kramer : Tokei-ihto vs. Winnetou . Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich's novel “The Sons of the Great Bear”. In: Communications from the Karl May Society . No. 130 , December 2001, p. 41 ( [1] - Welskopf-Henrich borrowed many Indian names from Catlin's work; for example Toh-kei-ih-to, Ma-to-to-toh-pe and Ha-wan-ji-tah.).
2. ^ Also published in Mitteilungen der Karl-May-Gesellschaft 130 , pp. 35–47
3. ↑ John Okute Sica: The Miracle of the Little Bighorn . Palisander Verlag, Chemnitz 2009, page 7ff
4. ↑ DEFA-Studio for feature films (Potsdam-Babelsberg) ( Memento from March 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ The sons of the great she-bear on Filmportal.de.
6. ↑ Gojko Mitić, Winnetou of the East, is 70 ( Memento from September 8, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ). Progress-film.de, June 8, 2010.
7. ^ The most successful GDR films in the GDR , on Insidekino.com.
8. ↑ The Sons of the Great Bear (1st part: Harka). In: ARD audio play database . German Broadcasting Archive , accessed on May 19, 2020 (link to the first part, the other seven episodes can be found via the link to the author Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich.).