Black Elk Speaks :: essays research papers

dimmed Elk SpeaksThe book dull Elk Speaks was written in the early 1930s by author JohnG. Neihardt, after interviewing the medicine piece of music named ominous Elk. Neihardt wasalready a published writer, and prior to this particular narrative he was atwork publishing a collection of poems titled rung of the West. Although he wasinitially seeking infor-mation about a peculiar Native American religiousmovement that occurred at the end of the 19th century for the finishing hispoetry collection, Neihardt was instead gifted with the story of Black Elkslife. Black Elks words would explain much about the personality of wisdom as wellas the lives of the Sioux and other tribes of that period. The priest or hallowed man calling himself Black Elk was born in theDecember of 1863, to a family in the Ogalala band of the Sioux. Black Elksfamily was well known, and he counted the famed Crazy Horse as a friend andcousin. Black Elks family was likewise acknowledged as a family of wise men,w ith both his father and grandfather themselves being holy men bearing the nameBlack Elk. The youngest Black Elk soon experienced a vision as a young male child, avision of the wisdom inherent in the earth that would direct him toward his truecalling of being a wichasha wakon or holy man like his predecessors. BlackElks childhood vision stayed with him throughout his life, and it offered himaid and wisdom whenever he sought it. It is from the strength of this vision,and the wisdom in his heart that Black Elk eventually realized his place as aleader and wise man in the Ogalala band of the Sioux.The wisdom possessed by Black Elk is immediately present in hisrecollections of various lessons learned by himself and by others. These storiesran the whole gambit of life experiences from the most innocent acts of a boy inlove, to the hard les-sons learned from the treachery of the whites. Throughthese stories a greater insight can be gained into the ways of the Sioux, aswell as lessons into the nature of all men. Most important in these lessons onthe nature of man was wisdom, and in all of Black Elks recollections somewherea deeper wisdom can be found.The story of High Horses Courting stands out as a perfect example ofone of Black Elks narratives. Typically, Black Elks narratives try to bestowa lesson (or les-sons) that the attendant can learn from, just as the subject ofthe story sometimes does.