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Black elk speaks book review8/17/2023 ![]() In his storytelling, Jackson takes his time. Jackson follows the strange trajectory of Black Elk’s life - as a child, as a performer in Buffalo Bill Cody’s wild west show traveling across Europe, as a warrior at Little Bighorn and at Wounded Knee, as a traditional medicine man, as a convert to Catholicism (which might have been a pragmatic decision - his children, he pointed out, “had to live in this world,” and traditional native religion had been outlawed), and, finally, as a blind, frail elderly man living in a one-room log cabin. “For the Sioux to survive, all must survive, even the hated wasichu.” This vision would define Black Elk’s life, and he came to understand that his role on Earth was to save his people by helping to bridge the gap between whites and natives. … He saw before him the entire spectrum of Sioux cosmology.” … The messengers pointed to a magnificent bay horse standing in the clouds. They flew headfirst, each with a spear thrust before him, and from each tip flowed lightning. Jackson - who based some of his reporting on the original transcripts of John Neihardt’s 1931 interviews with Black Elk - recounts the vision in three pages of vivid detail: “He saw the two warriors approach again from the clouds. It is a fascinating, heartsick read.īlack Elk was born in 1863 and over the course of his life (he died in 1950) he saw his people, the Oglala Lakota (Sioux), go from proud, self-sufficient hunters and warriors to impoverished captives forced onto increasingly small allotments of land, dependent on handouts - which were never enough - from the government.Ī cousin of Crazy Horse, Black Elk came from a long line of medicine men and healers and had his first and greatest vision during a serious illness when he was 9. government of the native culture, language, traditions and way of life. It is a sweeping, comprehensive, elegantly written history of white and Indian relations bloody, deadly battles and the steady, deliberate destruction by the U.S. It is a recommended read for anyone interested in not only the Lakota nations, but the history of what it means to be a human being of the glory and danger that comes with being a traveler through this world.Joe Jackson’s important biography of the visionary Black Elk is much more than the story of one man’s life. This is a book full of history and wisdom, and at the same time full of insight and hope. It carries not only lessons of acceptance and perseverance, but also a central message of universal love and wonder. It is a stirring narrative of the memories of an aged healer who, as a young man before the reservation years, experienced a great vision, a vision to which he held fast for all of his days, in the hope that it's manifestation would arrive within his lifetime. It has been hailed by critics as a religious classic, and some consider it among one of the greatest spiritualist texts of the modern era. ![]() The text itself, however, is more then just a retelling of history. Black Elk recounts in his memories as shared to Neihardt the fierce bravery of his people and how valiantly they fought for their freedom, winning a historical victory at Little Bighorn and suffering great decimation and loss at the Battle of Wounded Knee. The vision came to him during a time of great decimation and privation, when outsiders were robbing the Lakota of their land, food sources and their very way of life. The text tells a long narrative of Black Elk's vision for the unification of his people. Neihardt, in turn, recorded those sessions in a text, and thus the body of Black Elk Speaks was born. Neihardt, and recounted to him the tale of his vision of the Six Grandfathers and the reconstruction and vitalization of his people the Oglala Sioux. In 1930, already an aged man, Black Elk spoke intimately with poet and critic John G. "It is from understanding that power comes and the power of ceremony (of the ghost dance) was in understanding what is meant for nothing can live well except in a manner that is suited to the way the sacred Power of the World lives and moves" ~ Black Elk Speaksīlack Elk was born a member of the Oglala Sioux peoples in 1863, and was closely related to Crazy Horse. ![]()
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