Review Of JNeighardt

Review Of J.Neighardt’s Black Elk Speaks Essay, Research Paper

The book Black Elk Speaks was written in the early 1930’s by author John G.

Neihardt, after interviewing the medicine man named Black Elk. Neihardt was already

a published writer, and prior to this particular narrative he was at work publishing a

collection of poems titled Cycle of the West. Although he was initially seeking infor-

mation about a peculiar Native American religious movement that occurred at the end

of the 19th century for the conclusion his poetry collection, Neihardt was instead gifted

with the story of Black Elk’s life. Black Elk’s words would explain much about the na-

ture of wisdom as well as the lives of the Sioux and other tribes of that period.

The priest or holy man calling himself Black Elk was born in the December of

1863, to a family in the Ogalala band of the Sioux. Black Elk’s family was well known,

and he counted the famed Crazy Horse as a friend and cousin. Black Elk’s family was

likewise acknowledged as a family of wise men, with both his father and grandfather

themselves being holy men bearing the name Black Elk. The youngest Black Elk soon

experienced a vision as a young boy, a vision of the wisdom inherent in the earth that

would direct him toward his true calling of being a wichasha wakon or holy man like his

predecessors. Black Elk’s childhood vision stayed with him throughout his life, and it

offered him aid and wisdom whenever he sought it. It is from the strength of this vision,

and the wisdom in his heart that Black Elk eventually realized his place as a leader and

wise man in the Ogalala band of the Sioux.

The wisdom possessed by Black Elk is immediately present in his recollections

of various lessons learned by himself and by others. These stories ran the whole

gambit of life experiences from the most innocent acts of a boy in love, to the hard les-

sons learned from the treachery of the whites. Through these stories a greater insight

can be gained into the ways of the Sioux, as well as lessons into the nature of all men.

Most important in these lessons on the nature of man was wisdom, and in all of Black

Elk’s recollections somewhere a deeper wisdom can be found.

The story of High Horse’s Courting stands out as a perfect example of one of

Black Elk’s narratives. Typically, Black Elk’s narratives try to bestow a lesson (or les-

sons) that the listener can learn from, just as the subject of the story sometimes does.

High Horse’s Courting begins when a youth named High Horse falls madly in love with

a girl of his tribe. High Horse neither possessed the respect nor the wealth to obtain

this girl from her parents, so he had to resort to stealth and trickery to gain any access

to her at all. Eventually, High Horse did made contact with the girl and learned of her

similar feelings for him, but also learned that she wished to be earned from her father

like a lady and not to be stolen away dishonorably.

The disclosure by the girl only acted to frustrate High Horse more, and he

eventually had to turn to his cousin Red Deer for help. To help his cousin, Red Deer

advised High Horse on two separate occasions to sneak into the girl’s teepee and

make off with her, both attempts ended as comical failures. Finally, in a fit of disgust

and embarrassment, High Horse proclaimed that he was going on the warpath since he

could not have the girl. Red Deer, still wanting to help his friend and cousin, decided to

follow. High Horse and Red Deer fell upon a Crow encampment that night. The two

youths killed the sentry guarding the Crow horses, and each made off with a small herd

for himself.

Returning to the tribe with his new herd, High Horse immediately rode up to the

girl’s family teepee. When shown the herd of horses that High Horse offered the girl’s

father acquiesced and allowed him to have his daughter, but not solely because of the

amount of horses High Horse had offered. Instead the father revealed that the true

price High Horse paid was in his showing that he was a man in obtaining the horses in

such a skillful manner, and thus able to take care of his only daughter.

Thus the lessons of life are displayed to the listener of the story. High Horse

gets the girl through persistence and brave acts, Red Deer shows the rewards of

loyalty by following his cousin on the warpath and coming out a wealthy man, and the

girl’s father caps it all with his display of guile in selecting a suitable husband for his

daughter. This is how the wisdom of Black Elk comes through in the narrative, as a

simple but relative story possessing many nuggets of observant truths.

The period in American history in which Black Elk lived witnessed the massive

movement of whites into the Sioux territory seeking land and gold. Much of the

narrative in Black Elk Speaks describes the tribesmen’s actions and fears concerning

the encroachment onto their lan

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