Wabun Wind

I have been privileged in my life to take a true “heroine’s journey”. I have been allowed to step out of the culture into which I was born and experience life from a whole different worldview. This experience, added to my long desire to help myself and others find ways to live up to our full potential as human beings, has allowed me to encourage many people to find and follow their own visions, their own strongest path. Lilias Folan, one of the country’s best-known yoga teachers, wrote about one of my books, “I would like to warn the casual reader of Woman Of The Dawn, this book will reach inside you and speak to your own visions. Her courage and honesty will challenge you …” Library Journal said about the book, “Intimate…absorbing…a worthwhile testimony from a gutsy lady.”

I began writing poetry at the age of six. I was writing and editing a school page in my town paper by the age of 15. I had my first magazine article, and first piece about feminism, The Human Filing Cabinet, published by the time I was 18. I attended George Washington University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. I spent four years in New York City writing for a variety of publications about what was then called “The Human Potential Movement” (which is the granddaddy of the “New Age”). I also wrote about my opinions about politics, feminism, music, theater, religion and culture.

In 1970 I met Sun Bear, a Native American teacher and visionary. After completing my first book, The Peoples Lawyers, and a magazine article for Life, I moved west to work with Sun Bear and the Bear Tribe.

From 1971 until 1995 I was his “medicine helper”. I helped him to found a community of people of all races and backgrounds attempting to learn to live together in a more positive way than that taught or practiced by the mainstream culture. In my work with the Bear Tribe I was the executive director of the community, a counselor, teacher, lecturer, curriculum developer, public relations person, ceremonialist. I found and directed a publishing company and edited a national magazine. The publishing company produced eight books, four videotapes, over one dozen audiotapes, and a number of related products. In my years with this organization I met elders and teachers representing Native peoples from all parts of the world.

Ultimately, love, and a ticking biological clock motivated me to leave the life I had built with the Bear Tribe, and to dive as wholeheartedly into the mainstream culture as I had into the alternative and indigenous ones. I am now married to a child psychiatrist who specializes in character analytic therapy. We have a 19 year-old daughter who is a gifted artist and writer with a particular interest in designing video games.

I have lectured extensively about my cross-cultural experiences, about women’s roles in various cultures, about more humane systems of childbirth and child care, about comparative religions in their historical perspective, and about numerous other topics related to the earth, alternative living, and spirituality. I have also been featured in many magazines, in newspaper articles, and on both radio and television programs.

I have authored or co-authored ten published books, including The Medicine Wheel, which has sold over one-million copies worldwide. A list of my books follows. I am currently working on a novel, Hoops, on the twenty-fifth anniversary edition of The Medicine Wheel and on fables for children based upon The Medicine Wheel. A further description of these projects is in “Upcoming Events”.

Books By Marlise Wabun Wind

Dreaming With The Wheel
By Sun Bear, Wabun & Shawnodese
Simon & Schuster, 1995

Black Dawn /​ Bright Day
Indian Prophecies of the Millennium
By Sun Bear with Wabun Wind
Simon & Schuster, 1990

Dancing With The Wheel
The Medicine Wheel Workbook
By Sun Bear, Wabun Wind, & Crysalis Mulligan
Simon & Schuster, 1990

Woman Of The Dawn
A Spiritual Odyssey
By Wabun Wind
Simon & Schuster, 1989

Walk In Balance
A Guide to Happy, Healthy & Harmonious Living
By Sun Bear, Wabun, Crysalis Mulligan & Peter Nufer
Simon & Schuster, 1989

Sun Bear: The Path Of Power
By Sun Bear, Wabun & Barry Weinstock
Simon & Schuster, 1988

The Bear Tribe’s Self Reliance Book
By Sun Bear, Wabun, & Nimimosha
Simon & Schuster, 1987

Lightseeds
A Compendium of Ancient & Modern Crystal Knowledge
By Wabun Wind, & Anderson Reed
Prentice Hall Press, 1987

The Medicine Wheel: Earth Astrology
By Sun Bear & Wabun
Simon & Schuster, 1980

The People’s Lawyers
By Marlise James
Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1972