In American Indian communities, elders are the revered, because we recognize them as our culture-bearers. Arguably, they give us the best long view we have of what it means to be human, since they are the ones who mark in memory where we have been and are the ones who most likely possess a collective vision we need to carry forward and the cultural values and truths that give us our identity as a people. “Elders” in that context does not necessarily refer to someone within a tribal culture who has grown to be a certain age, but instead refers to those people to whom we turn for their wisdom. “Elder” stands for influence, mentor, guide, or culture-bearer. James Welch, a writer of Pikuni (Blackfeet) and Atsina (Gros Ventre) descent, has played all of those roles in the tremendous growth period of Native American literature beginning in the 1960s. He has served as what one literary critic calls a “mediator,” because Welch links an older generation of Native writers with a new, links oral traditions with written, and links cultural survival efforts of times passed with continuing efforts.