Speaks Lightning is the Indian name of a retired applied media anthropologist. After refusing to write about Indians for many years because this was a personal subject, a Blackfoot elder gave him tobacco and asked him to write books about Indians. As one who follows a traditional spiritual path, one does not deny certain requests from an elder. So a new journey began. This journey involved compiling a Winter Count about the Indian Nations of the United States, writing and editing articles for the Spirit Talk News newsletter, and compiling a number of books. Following the request of the elder, all of this material has been written under the name Speaks Lighting rather than the name used on other professional works.

     Speaks LIghting--aka E. B. Eiselein--received his Ph.D. in social anthropology from the University of Arizona (1969). His doctoral dissertation examined the role of voluntary associations in the politics of water resource management. From 1969 until 1980, he was the Research Director for the public broadcasting facility KUAT-AM/FM/TV in Tucson, Arizona. While originally employed to work on the Spanish-language TV series FIESTA, he later received a fellowship from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to become a TV producer and director. While at KUAT, he worked on a number of Spanish-language programs as well as English-language public affairs programs for both TV and radio.

     In addition to his research and minority affairs responsibilities at KUAT, he also held an appointment as an Associate Professor of Radio-TV at the University of Arizona. In this capacity he taught courses in minority broadcasting, research methods, and Introduction to Broadcasting.

     From 1980 until his retirement in 2004, he served as Research Director for A & A Research, a full service marketing research company. During this time, he conducted several thousand surveys for a variety of clients in Canada and the United States. Most of the projects dealt with newspaper readership. He also conducted research for a number of tribal radio stations.

     Since 1981, Dr. Eiselein has served as an adjunct instructor at Flathead Valley Community College, teaching classes in Anthropology, Native American Studies, Geography, Spanish, Sociology, Marketing, and Advertising. He also served as President of the Adjunct Instructors Union at FVCC.

    Dr. Eiselein also gives presentations and workshops for schools, public agencies, and other organizations.

     He is of Canadian Anishinabe (Ojibwa) descent. He is a powwow dancer, a pipe carrier, and a traditional spiritual leader. He has served on a number of boards, including the Northwest Inter-Tribal Center and Native Famillies Empowerment.

       The layout of the Spirit Talk News newsletters is done by Blue Heron Woman (the tribal name for Judith Doonan). With a background in journalism and broadcasting (she is a former executive news producer for a large market network TV station), she also edits the newslettter as well as the books which are distributed by Spirit Talk News.

       For more than two decades Judith Doonan was also the President and CEO for a full-service marketing research company.

       As an artist, she makes hand-made greeting cards. One of her cards is shown below.