Black Elk
Black Elk Heȟáka Sápa | |
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Little Powder River, Wyoming, United States | |
Died | 19 August 1950 Pine Ridge, South Dakota, United States | (aged 86)
Resting place | Saint Agnes Catholic Cemetery, Manderson, South Dakota |
Occupation | Catechist |
Children | Ben Black Elk |
Nicholas Black Elk | |
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Patronage | Native Americans (pending) |
Heȟáka Sápa, commonly known as Black Elk (baptized Nicholas; December 1, 1863 – August 19, 1950
Black Elk is best known for his interviews with poet
Black Elk converted to
Early years
Childhood
Black Elk came from a long lineage of medicine men and healers. His father was a medicine man, as were his paternal uncles. Black Elk was born into an Oglala
Vision
When Black Elk was nine years old, he was suddenly taken ill; he reported lying prone and unresponsive for several days. During this time he said he had a great vision in which he was visited by the Thunder Beings (Wakinyan)"... spirits were represented as kind and loving, full of years and wisdom, like revered human grandfathers."[4]: preface When he was 17, Black Elk told a medicine man, Black Road, about the vision in detail. Black Road and the other medicine men of the village were "astonished by the greatness of the vision."[4]: 6–7
Late in his life, Black Elk told Neihardt about his vision. He also envisioned a great tree that symbolized the life of the Earth and all people.[5] Neihardt later wrote about this in Black Elk Speaks.
In one of his visions, Black Elk describes being taken to the center of the Earth, and to the central mountain of the world.
From DeMallie's book:
And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.[4]: intro., 97
The Battle of the Little Bighorn
Black Elk was present at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and described his experience to John Neihardt:
There was a soldier on the ground and he was still kicking. A Lakota [Sioux] rode up and said to me, 'Boy, get off and scalp him.' I got off and started to do it. He had short hair and my knife was not very sharp. He ground his teeth. Then I shot him in the forehead and got his scalp. ... After awhile [on the battlefield] I got tired looking around. I could smell nothing but blood, and I got sick of it. So I went back home with some others. I was not sorry at all. I was a happy boy.[7]
Later Years: International touring and Ghost Dance movement
Buffalo Bill's Wild West
In 1887, Black Elk traveled to England with
In the spring of 1888,
The Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee Massacre
Black Elk returned to the
Black Elk was present at the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, which occurred due to fear by US settlers of the large interest in the Ghost Dance by Plains tribes. While on horseback, he said he charged soldiers and helped to rescue some of the wounded, arriving after many of Spotted Elk's (Big Foot's) band of people had been shot. He was grazed by a bullet to his hip.[13] Lakota leader Red Cloud convinced him to stop fighting after being wounded, and he remained on the Pine Ridge Reservation, where he could convert to Catholicism.[14]
Final years: Conversion to Catholicism
For at least a decade, beginning in 1934, Black Elk returned to work related to his performances earlier in life with Buffalo Bill. He organized an Indian show to be held at the Sitting Bull Crystal Cavern Dance Pavilion in the sacred Black Hills. Neihardt writes that, unlike the Wild West shows, used to glorify Native American warfare, Black Elk created a show to teach tourists about Lakota culture and traditional sacred rituals, including the Sun Dance.[15]
Black Elk's first wife Katie converted to
1930s: Meeting with Neihardt and Brown
In the early 1930s, Black Elk spoke with John Neihardt and Joseph Epes Brown, which led to the publication of Neihardt's books. His son Ben translated Black Elk's stories into English as he spoke. Neihardt's daughter Enid recorded these accounts. She later arranged them in chronological order for Neihardt's use. Thus the process had many steps and involved more people than Black Elk and Neihardt in the recounting and recording.[18]
After Black Elk spoke with Neihardt over the course of several days, Neihardt asked why Black Elk had "put aside" his old religion and baptized his children. According to [Neihardt's daughter] Hilda, Black Elk replied, "My children had to live in this world."[16] "To live" according to Black Elk, is one of the central prayers of Lakota spirituality. (Black Elk mentions this prayer for life nineteen times in The Sacred Pipe.) In her 1995 memoir, Hilda Neihardt wrote that just before his death, Black Elk took his pipe and told his daughter Lucy Looks Twice, "The only thing I really believe is the pipe religion."[19]
Legacy
Since the 1970s, the book
On August 11, 2016, the US Board on Geographic Names officially renamed Harney Peak, the highest point in South Dakota, Black Elk Peak in honor of Nicholas Black Elk and in recognition of the significance of the mountain to Native Americans.[21]
In August 2016, the
Damian Costello writes that Black Elk's Lakota Catholic faith was uniquely anti-colonial, stemming from his Ghost Dance vision.[27] In this he says it was broadly analogous to anti-colonial movements from across the globe drawn from the Biblical narrative, such as the Rastafari in Jamaica.[28]
Books
- Books of Black Elk's accounts
- Bison Books, 2004 (originally published in 1932) : Black Elk Speaks Archived 2018-04-25 at the Wayback Machine
- The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt, edited by Raymond J. DeMallie, ISBN 0-8032-1664-5.
- The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk's Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux (as told to Joseph Epes Brown), MJF Books, 1997
- Spiritual Legacy of the American Indian (as told to Joseph Epes Brown), World Wisdom, 2007
- Books about Black Elk
- Nicholas Black Elk: Medicine Man, Catechist, Saint, by Jon M. Sweeney, Liturgical Press. ISBN 978-0-8146-4416-4
- Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala, by Michael F. Steltenkamp, ISBN 0-8061-2541-1
- Nicholas Black Elk: Medicine Man, Missionary, Mystic, by Michael F. Steltenkamp, ISBN 0-8061-4063-1
- The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt, edited by Raymond J. DeMallie; 1985
- Black Elk and Flaming Rainbow: Personal Memories of the Lakota Holy Man, by Hilda Neihardt, University of Nebraska Press, 2006. ISBN 0-8032-8376-8
- Black Elk's Religion: The Sun Dance and Lakota Catholicism, by Clyde Holler, Syracuse University Press; 1995
- Black Elk: Colonialism and Lakota Catholicism, by Damian Costello, Orbis Books; 2005
- Black Elk Reader, edited by Clyde Holler, Syracuse University Press; 2000
- Black Elk, Lakota Visionary, by Harry Oldmeadow, World Wisdom; 2018
Film
In 2020, a documentary produced by the Diocese of Rapid City, Walking the Good Red Road – Nicholas Black Elk's Journey to Sainthood, aired on ABC television affiliates. It can be viewed on Vimeo.[29]
See also
- Black Elk Wilderness
- Black Elk Peak
- Charles Eastman
- Crazy Horse
- I Remain Alive: the Sioux Literary Renaissance
- John Fire Lame Deer
- Red Cloud
- Sitting Bull
References
- ^ Sources differ
- ISBN 0814644163
- ^ Petersen, Kirk (2018-08-25). "Vatican considers sainthood for Black Elk". National Catholic Reporter. Retrieved 2021-02-25.
- ^ ISBN 0-8032-1664-5.
- ^ Neihardt, John, ed., Black Elk Speaks, annotated edition, published by SUNY, 2008, p. 33.
- ^ ISBN 0-385-41886-8.
- ^ a b Frazier, Ian (26 December 2017). "Another Vision of Black Elk". Newyorker.com. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ "BBC – Manchester – Features : Tracking the Salford Sioux". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ "Black Elk Speaks : Index". Firstpeople.us. Archived from the original on 25 April 2018. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ "When she came to where we were, her wagon stopped and she stood up. Then all those people stood up and roared and bowed to her: "but she bowed to us." Neihardt, John, ed., Black Elk Speaks, annotated edition, published by SUNY, 2008, pp. 176–177.
- ^ Neihardt, John G.. Black Elk Speaks: The Complete Edition (p. 152). Bison Books. Kindle Edition.
- JSTOR 662367.
- ISBN 0-8032-6564-6.
- ^ "Black Elk". HISTORY. April 20, 2010. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
- ISBN 978-1-4384-2538-2. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
- ^ ISBN 0-8032-6564-6.
- ^ ISBN 0385113323.
- ISBN 978-0-8156-2836-1. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
- ISBN 0-8032-3338-8.
- ^ Silvio, Carl (2003). "Sites about Black Elk Speaks". The Internet Public Library. Archived from the original on October 7, 2007. Retrieved June 19, 2011.
- ^ "Feds rename Harney Peak, South Dakota's highest peak, to Black Elk Peak". Rapid City Journal. Associated Press. August 12, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
- ^ "1950". Newsaints.faithweb.com. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ "Diocese of Rapid City — The Catholic Church of western South Dakota". Diocese of Rapid City. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-8146-4416-4.
- ^ "Cause Opens for Nicholas Black Elk, Holy Man of the Lakota". Ncregister.com. 23 October 2017. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ "Canonization process begins for Black Elk, the Native American who merged Lakota and Catholic culture". Americamagazine.org. 3 November 2017. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
- ^ Costello, Damian “Black Elk’s Vision of Waníkiya: the Ghost Dance, Catholic Sacraments, and Lakota Ontology,” Journal of NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community, Vol. 16 (2018): 40-56.
- ^ Costello, Damian, Black Elk: Colonialism and Lakota Catholicism (Orbis Books, 2005), 166-68.
- ^ Walking the Good Red Road – Nicholas Black Elk's Journey to Sainthood
External links
- Black Elk at Find a Grave
- "Writings of Black Elk" from C-SPAN's American Writers: A Journey Through History
- Black Elk's last testament