Dances with Wolves is a book by Michael Blake (1988), which also was filmed in 1990. It tells a story about a young cavalry lieutenant, John Dunbar, who moves to the West in 1860. The outpost where he lets himself send forward to is now abandoned, making him stau all alone near indigenous lands. His horse Cisco and a lone wolf he names Two Socks are the only company.

danceswithwolvesHe gets more and more contact with a Sioux tribe, and is increasingly integrated there. He is confronted by the outrageous behavior of whites: dumping garbage, killing bisons, only for the skin and tongue, clear-cutting of forest, ... (It seems that little has changed after more than 150 years, except that there is no Indian culture and territory any more.) By the way he as a 'turncoat' is treated by the whites, he can still muster little respect for his own short-sighted and selfish species. It teaches him who are the real ‘savages'.

"Dance with Wolves" is the name that the Indians give him when they see him fearlessly on the plain running around with Two Socks. Also the horseback riding style of the Indians, bareback, Blake describes as a dance move in which the two partners smoothly act as one.

The Indian dances to call for the return of the bison or the banquet and woman dancing are only described quite briefly. And of course there is also a good deal of romance in the story.

The screenplay of the film differs in several points from the book (in the version I read / saw), but both are definitely worth it.