Nomadic Culture - Black Elk
The Crow and Cheyenne nations
were documented as living here more than 200 years ago. The Pawnee and
Shoshone often frequented the area. The Lakota Sioux, the most recent
of the Native American nations, moved into the area around 1780 pushing
the Crow and Cheyenne south and west. The Sioux had been forced from their
native home in the Minnesota region by the Chippewa, who in turn, had
moved into Minnesota from the East. All of this migration was the result
of the westward expansion of American civilization.
Black Elk Speaks in
Spearfish Canyon
In the tradition of the Plains
Natives, to know one's ancestry was through the 'spoken' word. Rarely,
if at all, was it in written form. Some Native American history was recorded
by the author, John G. Neihardt, who in 1932 wrote the book, Black
Elk Speaks.
In 1930, as
the nation was roaring into a new form of industrialism, a Nebraska poet
named Neihardt traveled northward to the reservation of the Oglala Sioux
in search of historical material. John G. Neihardt was also a frequent
traveler to Spearfish Canyon, and resided in one of the quaint cabins
of the old Latchstring Inn. There, for months on end, the charm and solitude
of the enchanting Canyon landscape inspired his many writings including
the words of Black Elk.
His own words best describe
his visit to the reservation.
"It was during August,
1930, that I first met Black Elk. I was then working on the Song of
the Messiah...called the "Messiah craze" -- the great Messiah
dream that came to the desperate Indians in the middle of the 80's of
the 19th century and ended with the massacre at Wounded Knee, South
Dakota."
Black Elk was
a 'wichasha wakon,' a holy man, and was the second cousin to Crazy Horse
and had known the great chieftain well. Black Elk offered an eloquent
and profound vision of the unity of all life.
The
Pipe:
"I will first make
an offering and send a voice to the Spirit of the World, that it may
help me to be true. See, I fill this sacred pipe with the bark of the
red willow; but before we smoke it, you must see how it is made and
what it means. These four ribbons hanging here on the stem (of the pipe)
are the four quarters of the universe. The black one is for the west
where the thunder beings live to send us rain; the White one for the
north, whence comes the great white cleansing wind; the red one for
the east, whence springs the light and where the morning star lives
to give men wisdom; the yellow for the south, whence come the summer
and the power to grow. But these four spirits are only one spirit after
all, and this eagle feather here (on the stem) is for that One, which
is like a father, and also is for the thoughts of men that should rise
high as eagles do. Is not the sky a father and the earth a mother, and
are not all living things with feet or wings or roots their children?"
The Wasichus:
 Black
Elk speaks of a time in history when the Wasichus, a term to designate
the white man, but having no to his color of skin, had encircled the Black
Hills with their iron roads (railroads) that had cut the bison herd in
two, and the muddy trails full of wagons and longhorns passing ever westward.
But, then -- they stopped.
"Pahuska (long hair
– General Armstrong Custer) had led his soldiers into the Black
Hills to see what he could find. He had no right to go there...they
had made a treaty in 1868 that said the Hills are ours as long as the
grass should grow and water flow. It was such a good place to play and
the people were always happy in that country. Pahuska had found much
of the yellow metal that makes the Wasichus crazy. We had known of the
yellow metal chunks, but it was not good for anything."
The rest is history.
Black Elk shared
his vision with Neihardt because he wished to pass along to future generation
some of the reality of Oglala life and the visions of its future. Black
Elk Speaks, originally published in 1932, is venerated by many who have
become alarmed at the declining spiritual and material quality of life
in the modern age. So important has the book become, that it is recognized
as the Holy Book of the North American native cultures.
Contributors/Source:
Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt, University of Nebraska Press.
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