Rocks Not Happy In Sacks

In the mid 70’s Gilbert decided to write down the stories that he grew up with, stories from the Lakota oral tradition. With the help of his wife, Montana, he enrolled in a small state college and signed up for a writing course to improve his English vocabulary and grammar. For one of the class assignments he wrote a poem, “Rocks Not Happy in Sacks”. I remember him telling the story of reading the poem in front of the class, saying ‘sex’ instead of ‘sacks’ and how everybody got a big laugh.

It is the only known original work of Gilbert’s to survive that writing class. And it is completely Gilbert; the way he talked, his outlook on life. He included the poem in a self-published anthology of his and Montana’s work, O-Hu-Kah-Kan.

Although I had lived at Tatanka Mani Camp for several years and worked closely with everyone there, developing this book with Gilbert was the closest I had been to him. We had a lot of one-on-one time and I am grateful for that. He selected the artist from several sample books that I presented to him in January of 2007. He advised me on the presentation of the book, and a week before he crossed over he posed for photographs (in that grumpy way of his) that were used in several of the sketches.

I miss him.

-Sally

This is the First Edition, first printing of the book Rocks Not Happy In Sacks. It is a hard cover book that measures 10 x 8, and is available for sale only through this web site.

Portions of the book are presented below. To enlarge, please click on the image. The order form is in PDF format. If your browser will not open the file, you may need to download Acrobat Reader. Please print and mail in the form.