Neihardt later pieced together the transcript, rewriting portions to capture the flavor and meaning of Black Elk's original spoken testimony and to maintain narrative flow. The two men relied on their children to complete their task: Black Elk's son translated his father's words into English, while Neihardt's daughter recorded a stenographic transcript of the translation. After first meeting the aging medicine man, however, Neihardt felt that Black Elk's story was an important piece of American history in its own right that needed to be preserved:Īs hunter, warrior, practicing holy man, and indubitable seer, he seemed even then to represent the consciousness of the Plains Indian more fully than any other I had ever known and when I became well acquainted with his inner world, I knew this to be true. Hearing that Black Elk had been an instrumental participant in the Oglala ghost dance movement, Neihardt hoped to glean some firsthand information for his poem. Neihardt first traveled to meet Black Elk while researching the ghost dance movement of the 1890s for an epic poem he was writing. However, the two men recognized each other as kindred spirits, and each played an important part in bringing the book to life. Neihardt, the poet and authority on Plains Indian culture who brought Black Elk's tale to the page, did not speak Sioux. Black Elk, the Oglala Sioux medicine man whose life the book relates, did not speak English. Neihardt, is one of the most unusual memoirs ever put to paper. Like so many other tribes, the Oglala Sioux's traditional way of life ran counter to the American dream as envisioned by most white Americans in the nineteenth century.īlack Elk Speaks, by John G. Unfortunately, Black Elk's story is ultimately one of broken dreams and unfulfilled visions. As a child, Black Elk experienced a vision that he thought would help lead his people through the hardships they were just beginning to endure. Black Elk Speaks (1932) is the story of an Oglala Sioux medicine man who lived with his people on the Great Plains through most of the second half of the nineteenth century-an age that saw many bloody conflicts between American Indians and white soldiers and settlers.
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