Product Description

A spiritual legacy of one man s ordinary Minnesota lifestyle, suddenly fused with a rich, Lakota heritage that enabled him to cross boundaries far beyond his own expectations.

Imagine waking up one day to discover you belong to a completely different culture. Paul Summers, a 38-year-old father of two, has just discovered that his birth mother was a member of the Lakota tribe from South Dakota. Drained physically, emotionally, and financially following his attempts to pursue a career in music, Paul hits rock bottom.

How do you prepare to face truths that have been hidden for years? Kathy Summers knows how deeply her husband is hurting and begins steps to trace his roots. As details unravel, the Summers family arranges to meet Paul's Lakota relatives. More than anything, Paul fears rejection by the family and culture he had never known. But the trip to the Lower Brule Sioux Reservation in South Dakota is more than a reunion; it's a soulful homecoming that changes Paul's life forever.

Paul finds the answer...and walks away from his civil engineering job in the Twin Cities, moving his family to the reservation. Stirred by the rustic landscape of the plains, Paul's musical passions come to life. Honoring his adoptive parents and embracing his newfound family, he creates a unique synthesis of the two cultures.

Paul and his award-winning band, Brule, tour the U.S. each year, performing at various venues for thousands of fans. Initially drawn by the contagious music, they find themselves completely captured by the story at the heart of it all. This compelling book addresses the tensions and triumphs of family life, and touches on the themes of identity, purpose, and reconciliation while following a dream. Going beyond cultural borders, it invites readers to heal racial, spiritual, and economic divides within themselves and others.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #659713 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

About the Author
Barbara Marshak is a freelance writer and author with over 100 published articles and stories. Her essays can be found in Groovy Chicks, Cup of Comfort, and God's Way, among others. She has also written for national and regional periodicals, including Guideposts, Minnesota Monthly, and Lake Country Journal. In 2006 she was selected as a featured author in Bylines.

A native of Minnesota, Barbara and her husband, John, reside in the Twin Cities and have a blended family of six children.

Customer Reviews

The riveting biography of an amazing Lakota musician
"Hidden Heritage: The Story of Paul LaRoche" is the riveting biography of an amazing Lakota musician who only discovered his native American origin as an adult. Paul LaRoche (whose adoptive surname was Summers) has founded an entire identity and successful career as a musician partly as a result of finding and embracing his Lakota roots. For those readers who are familiar with the award winning New-Age Native American band 'Brule', the story of Paul's adoption and upbringing in southwestern Minnesota with the subsequent discovery at age 38 that he was born to a woman of the Lakota tribe from South Dakota may be familiar. Brule is a famous band whose sound has literally paved the way for other Native American/New Age bands to find a listening audience and succeed. What "Hidden Heritage" accomplishes in addition to tracing the fascinating discovery of one man's ethnic identity and how knowledge of it changed his life is it traces the evolution of the family band, Brule. The moving moment in the book when Paul receives his Lakota name, sponsored by tribal chairman Mike Jandreau is pivotal: ""Paul has been away since he was very little. He sought and found his way back home to Lower Brule, through God's mercy. He is therefore named Advocate of the Burnt thigh.' Mike paused between sentences, relaxed and unhurried, a noticeable speech characteristic in the Native dialect. 'Put the eagle feather on... become a sacred man of God's creation. Carry the feather proudly among your people, your tribe. Represent a man of dignity, like our forefathers,' he said (p. 215)." This is exactly what follows in Paul's momentous rise with his family band Brule. He develops a new synthesis of healing music to bring two diverse cultures together so there can be peace and harmonious thinking between them, and so they may lend strength to each other. In addition to being a fine spiritual biography, "Hidden Heritage" presents a choice amount of Native American history and cultural lore to further educate the reader. Author Babara Marshak has achieved a notable balance between perspectives, both Lakota and white, with a feeling of the reader's sharing experiences on both sides of the dialogue.

Showing the strength and beauty of the Lakota culture
Hidden Heritage is so much more than a biography of Paul LaRoche. Woven through the story of a life that is both challenging and triumphant, is a look into the Lakota culture that I had never seen before. When the history of the Lakota people is described, it is never done in an accusatory or victimized tone. Instead the book shows the dignity and inner strength of the Lakota people, and presents Lakota view points that we would be well-advised to incorporate into our hectic western culture. It demonstrates that reconciliation is both achievable and highly desirable.

Story of blending two cultures
A boy was born at Saint Mary's Hospital in Pierre, South Dakota to a Sioux woman who managed to hide her pregnancy from her family, and who chose to give her son up for adoption. A white, middle-class couple from Worthington, in Southwestern Minnesota, adopts him and he becomes Paul Summers. His adoptive mother, Irma, explained his dark complexion as a French-Canadian connection.

In a telephone conversation thirty-eight years later, Paul says hello to his biological brother, Fritz, for the first time. "Hey, bro," Fritz replied. "You're Sioux!'" Paul and his family journey back to the family of his blood the Thanksgiving after the brothers' first conversation. Journeying home to the family of his birth brings Paul's family to the Lower Brule Sioux Reservation in South Dakota.

After he, his wife and children are welcomed home at the reservation, Paul strives to bring the culture of his upbringing and the one of his blood together through his music to heal the wounds of the past. Following what he feels called to do both artistically and spiritually, takes him on a journey that is both difficult and rewarding.

Paul LaRoche writes in the foreword of Hidden Heritage, "I am certain though that we are on the road less traveled, the one that brings a sense of purpose while navigating its narrow path."

The risks of the path are embraced not only by Paul, but by his entire family. His wife, Kathy Summers, stands with him and sometimes pushes him forward past his own doubts. His children, Shane and Nicole, make their own discoveries while following him through his musical, familial and spiritual journey.

This is also a story of the balance that can be found when both husband and wife disregard keeping up with the Joneses, do their best for each other and their family without completely losing themselves.

Armchair Interviews says: An interesting real-life story of culture and blood relations. A 3+ star read.