Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich

Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich (1901–1979) was a writer and scholar. During the Nazi period, she participated in the anti-fascist resistance. She became best known for the six-part Native American novel cycle “Die Söhne der Großen Bärin,” whose original version was published in 1951, and for the novel “Nacht über der Prärie” (1966). Experiences she gained in the United States and Canada informed her literary engagement with the lives of North American Indigenous peoples. From 1960, Welskopf-Henrich was a professor of ancient history at Berlin’s Humboldt University; from 1962, she was also a member of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin. The Oglala gave her the honorary name Lakota-Tashina (“Protective Blanket of the Lakota”).