Operation: Nebraska Author- Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Ogalala Sioux

Today, I finally finished my last book for Operation: Nebraska Author and 2017. I know we're a week into 2018, but I started the book three weeks ago so I'm counting it.

My final book of 2017 was Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux by Nicholas Black Elk and John G. Neihardt.

I first heard about Black Elk Speaks at the 2016 Celebration of Nebraska Books that was put on by the Nebraska Center for the Book. It was chosen to be the 2017 One Book One Nebraska.

"The One Book One Nebraska reading program is entering its thirteenth year. It encourages Nebraskans across the state to read and discuss one book, chosen from books written by Nebraska authors or that have a Nebraska theme or setting." (onebook.nebraska.gov)

Black Elk was born in 1863 in the Ogalala band of the Lakota Sioux. He was born into the time when the Wasichu (white people) were spreading across the Great Plains, depleting the buffalo herds and, mile by mile, taking the land the Plains Indians had occupied for centuries. When he was six years old, he was taken by a sickness that swelled his limbs and face and brought a great fever. During this fever, he had a vision where he was taken to the center of the world, which was in the holy Black Hills, and shown and taught many things from the spirits. He was to become a very important man to his people. When he finally woke from the fever, it had been days and his parents feared that he was dead, but he miraculously recovered in very little time.

Black Elk remembered the vision when he woke, but he was scared. He didn't know what it meant and didn't know if he was the right person to complete the tasks laid out for him. He waited many years before finally telling a medicine man about his vision, and only told because he could feel that the time was coming that the spirits had warned him about. The medicine man worked with Black Elk to make his vision come to life so they all could see it and from this, came the Horse Dance.

Black Elk's childhood was spent moving around the upper Plains, which was not unusual for the nomadic tribes, but the time had come where they were not just following the bison herds, they were also dealing with the encroaching tide of Wasichu and the US government. When gold was discovered in the Black Hills and yet another treaty was broken by Wasichu, the Lakota found themselves losing the battle for their lands, their freedom, and their way of life.

"I guess they got enough to drink, for they are drinking yet.
We killed them in the water."
-Iron Hawk, "The Rubbing Out of Long Hair"
Haunting.

Black Elk was just a boy when he took part in the Rubbing out of Long Hair (Custer's Last Stand/The Battle of the Little Big Horn) but he was quickly learning the hardships that were sweeping through the tribes. He was a cousin of Crazy Horse and was with him shortly before he was killed at Fort Robinson, NE.

Black Elk was seventeen when the weight of his boyhood vision became too much and this is when his parents asked Black Road, a medicine man, to help Black Elk. The Horse Dance was the first thing he gave to his people but it was just the beginning of his life as a holy man. He had a vision that led him to a flower that cured all who were ill and he began curing any who would come to him, but he did not feel that he was doing enough for his people.

When Black Elk was twenty-three, he decided to join Buffalo Bill Cody's troupe and visit the place where the Wasichu were from, Europe. By this time, the Lakota's culture was rapidly being stamped out by the influx of Wasichu, hunger due to the diminished bison herd, and because many of the bands were giving up the fight. Black Elk thought that if he visited Europe, he could discover a secret that would end the Wasichu hold over the Lakota and return prosperity to his people.

Black Elk spent many months in London and then a few more in Manchester, he even met Queen Victoria who rather liked the Ogalalas in the show and they liked her in return. When it came time for Cody's troupe to leave Manchester, Black Elk and a few other men got lost and separated from the troupe. They found two Lakota men who could speak English and the group made their way to London so they could earn money to get home. There they joined Mexican Joe's show and saw more of Europe, including Paris and Germany.

Caption: "Black Elk and Elk as they appeared when
touring Europe with Buffalo Bill's Wild West. Used with
the permission of the Smithsonian Institute, National
Anthropological Archives, 81 negative no. 72-7016."

After more than two years away, Black Elk grew more and more homesick, even having a vision of his family while visiting a girl he met with the show and her family. He was unconscious for three days during that vision and they feared for his life. Eventually, Mexican Joe's show cross paths with Cody's show and Black Elk went to visit Cody, who was excited to see him. Cody offered him a job but when Black Elk said he wanted to go home, Cody gave him money and sent him on his way.

By the time Black Elk returned to his family, the remaining nomadic bands of Lakota were in dire straights. Few bison to hunt, a hard winter, and constant broken promises by the US army lead to the loss of many people. Black Elk did what he could, but the Wasichu hold on the Plains grew with each passing day.

There were only a few bands of Lakota still free when the Massacre at Wounded Knee happened. Black Elk was not far away when the fighting started and he and other warriors raced to help. They were able to save a few, but 200-300 men, women, and children perished. Black Elk also nearly died during the fight when a bullet ripped open his stomach, but he recovered.

The Massacre at Wounded Knee signaled the end of the the resistance. The brutality of it broke the spirit of those who had withstood the force of the Wasichu and ended the era of the Plains Indians.

This was just a brief overview of the book but there are so many more great things contained within its pages that I can't express. The beauty of expression many times left me speechless, wither it was Neihardt's poetic pen or Black Elk's voice I don't know, but I do like to think it is Black Elk's for the rhythm and imagery is nearly alien to me as a native English speaker.

I now understand why Black Elk Speaks saw a surge in popularity during the 1970s when the Civil Rights Movement was changing the way we looked at our fellow man and the infancy of the Environmentalist Movement was changing the way we looked at our surroundings. The way that Black Elk and his people honored the Earth and the spirits and how their tribe wasn't just their community, it was their family, both lessons that we sorely need today.

I'll stop there before I step further over the line of political/societal commentary, I'll just say this: Black Elk Speaks was an amazing book. The imagery was beautiful at times and heartbreaking at others. It gave me more insight into a culture that I first experienced in college when I was befriended by two Rosebud Lakota women and a culture that I wish to learn more about. I strongly recommend it to anybody who is interested in American History, Native American History, Native American Mythology/culture, Civil Rights, or Environmental preservation.

What is good in this book is given back to the six grandfathers and to the great men of my people. 

-Black Elk, inscription in Black Elk Speaks