Black Elk

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Black Elk
BlackElk.jpg
Black Elk with wife and daughter, circa 1890-1910
Born1863
Died1950

Black Elk (Hehaka Sapa) (c. December 1863 – August 17 or August 19, 1950 was a famous Wichasha Wakan (Medicine Man or Holy Man) of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux). He was heyoka and a second cousin of Crazy Horse. Black Elk participated, at about the age of twelve, in the Battle of Little Big Horn of 1876, and was wounded in the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890.


Black Elk married his first wife, Katie War Bonnett, in 1892. She became a Catholic, and all three of their children were baptized in the Catholic faith. After her death in 1903, he too was baptized, taking the name Nicholas Black Elk and serving as a catechist. He continued to serve as a spiritual leader among his people, seeing no contradiction in embracing what he found valid in both his tribal traditions concerning Wakan Tanka, and those of Christianity. He remarried in 1905 to Anna Brings White, a widow with two daughters. She bore him three more children, and remained his wife until she died in 1941.

Toward the end of his life, he revealed the story of his life, and a number of sacred Sioux rituals to John Neihardt and Joseph Epes Brown for publication, and his accounts have won wide interest and acclaim. He also claimed to have had several visions in which he met the spirit that guided the universe.


Life

Early life and visions

Black Elk was born into the Oglala Lakota (Sioux Nation) in December 1863 ("Moon of the Popping Trees during the Winter When the Four Crows Were Killed"). When he was three years old his father was wounded in the Fetterman Fight, known among the Sioux as the Battle of the Hundred Slain, organized by Chief Red Cloud. This was a winter when hunting was poor and snowfall was heavy. Nonetheless the tibe moved westward, away from white encroachment.

When Black Elk was four years old, he began to hear voices when noone was present, which he reported frightened him. At the age of five, he had a vision in which two flying men appeared to him, singing a sacred song to the accompaniment of the drumming of thunder. He kept these voices and visions to himself.

In the Native American way of life, young men traditionally go alone into nature for a period of time, praying, fasting and practicing traditional religion in the pursuit of a vision (a "vision quest") at the time of initiation into adulthood. However, at a much younger age, Black Elk received a vision without effort on his part. This seems to point to Black Elk having been chosen by the Ancestors for a special mission.

Meeting the Grandfathers

At the age of nine, Black Elk had a vision following the instruction of voices telling him to "hurry because his Grandfathers are waiting". His tribe was moving camp at the time, but Black Elk became so sick that he had to be carried. Arms, legs and face swollen, he was laid to recover in his parents' teepee. At this point, looking through the top opening, he viewed men beckoning him to follow them to his Grandfathers. Then led by horses, he was taken to a teepee in which the six Grandfathers were waiting. Each of the grandfathers told Black Elk something about himself and the Native peoples' destiny and each gave him a symbolic object. He was told by the sixth Grandfather that he would receive his power, important for his nation's great trouble to come.

The vision progressed to four ascents, each one getting progressively steeper and more difficult, which they climbed together. Black Elk reported seeing fighting, gunfire, and smoke, and his people fleeing 'like swallows'. However, the vision ended with the sight of the whole world as one, the hoops of many nations united in one hoop, with one mighty tree sheltering everyone as the children of one father and one mother. He was then instructed to go back empowered and restore his people.

When Black Elk regained consciousness following this vision, his parents told him that he had been near death for twelve days and the medicine man, Whirlwind Chaser, had cured him. Black Elk was afraid to share his vision, believing he could not adequately convey his experience. However, Whirlwind Chaser told his parents that there was something special about him, leading Black Elk to believe that the medicine man knew he had received such a vision.

Teen years

Sources

Books

Black Elk's As Told To books
  • Black Elk, and John Gneisenau Neihardt. 1988. Black Elk speaks being the life story of a holy man of the Oglala Sioux. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0803283598
  • Neihardt, John Gneisenau, Black Elk, and Raymond J. DeMallie. 1984. The Sixth Grandfather Black Elk's teachings given to John G. Neihardt. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0803216645
  • Black Elk, and Joseph Epes Brown. 1953. The sacred pipe; Black Elk's account of the seven rites of the Oglala Sioux. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
  • Brown, Joseph Epes. 1982. The spiritual legacy of the American Indian. New York: Crossroad. ISBN 0824504895
Books about Black Elk
  • Petri, Hilda Neihardt. 1995. Black Elk and Flaming Rainbow personal memories of the Lakota holy man and John Neihardt. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0803283768
  • Steltenkamp, Michael F. 1993. Black Elk holy man of the Oglala. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806125411
  • Costello, Damian. 2005. Black Elk colonialism and Lakota Catholicism. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books. ISBN 1570755809

VHS Video and DVD

  • Writings of Black Elk (C-SPAN, 2001) ID: 165060. From the jacket: The program, telecast from the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, contained portions of an interview with Black Elk’s great-granddaughter, a re-enactment of the battle, and looked at several artifacts from the site. Length: 2:32.
  • Black Elk (C-SPAN, 2001) ID: 165105. From the jacket: Ms. Black Elk spoke about her great grandfather, his impact on U.S. history, Native American history, and tribal culture. Length: 0:34.


External links


Credits

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