Joseph Epes Brown received a Ph.D. in Anthropology and History of Religions from the University of Stockholm in 1970.  He taught at the University of Montana in the Department of Religious Studies from 1972 until his retirement in 1989.  In collaboration with Black Elk, he wrote The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk's Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux, originally published in 1953.  Joseph also wrote The Spirit Legacy of the American Indian, published in 1984, and the Animals of the Soul: Sacred Animals of the Oglala Sioux, published in 1997.  His Teaching Spirits: Understanding Native American Religious Traditions was published in 2010 by Oxford University Press.   Joseph passed away at the age of 80 on September 19, 2000, after a long illness with Alzheimer's disease.

The following excerpts, A Mountain and Black Elk, are from a keynote address Joseph gave in October of 1984 at Carroll College on how our religious traditions influence our views of the environment.   (Access these audio files via RealPlayer.   You can obtain a FREE version at this site)

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