Black Elk

Black Elk
Black Elk with wife and daughter, c. 1890-1910
Born	December 1, 1863 (1863-12) Little Powder River, Wyoming
Died	August 19, 1950 (1950-08-20) (age 87) Pine Ridge, South Dakota
Spouse(s)	Katie War Bonnet (1892–1903) Anna Brings White (1905–1941) Ellen (?–1950)
Children	Benjamin (?–1973) John Lucy Looks Twice (?–1978)

Heȟáka Sápa (Black Elk) (December 1863-August 19, 1950) was a famous Wičháša Wakȟáŋ (Medicine Man or Holy Man) of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux). He was Heyoka and a second cousin of Crazy Horse.

Life

Black Elk said that several times during his life, he had several visions in which he learned things that would help his people. In his "great vision," at the age of nine, he said he met the spirit that guided the universe and saw a great tree that symbolized the life of the earth and of the Indian people. He did not speak of this to anyone until he was much older, but his family apparently understood he was clairvoyant after his supposed "illness".

Black Elk was involved in several battles with the U.S. cavalry. He participated, at about the age of twelve, in the Battle of Little Big Horn of 1876, and was injured in the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890.

In 1887, Black Elk traveled to England with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, an unpleasant experience he described in chapter 20 of Black Elk Speaks. On May 11, 1887, the troop put on a command performance for Queen Victoria, whom they called "Grandmother England." He also described being in the crowd at her Golden Jubilee.

Black Elk married his first wife, Katie War Bonnet, in 1892. She became a Catholic, and all three of their children were baptized as Catholic. After her death in 1903, he too was baptized, taking the name Nicholas Black Elk and serving as a catechist. He continued to serve as a spiritual leader among his people, seeing no contradiction in embracing what he found valid in both his tribal traditions concerning Wakan Tanka and those of Christianity. He remarried in 1905 to Anna Brings White, a widow with two daughters. Together they had three more children and remained married until she died in 1941.

Toward the end of his life, Black Elk revealed the story of his life, and a number of sacred Sioux rituals to John Neihardt and Joseph Epes Brown for publication, and his accounts have won wide interest and acclaim.

Influence

The visions and teachings of Black Elk are honored and studied by The National Spiritist Church of Alberta (Native Spirituality Church)

Books

Books by Black Elk

• Black Elk Speaks: being the life story of a holy man of the Oglala Sioux (as told to John G. Neihardt), Bison Books, 2004 (originally published in 1932) : Black Elk Speaks
• The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt, edited by Raymond J. Demallie, University of Nebraska Press; new edition, 1985
• 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

• Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala, by Michael F. Steltenkamp, University of Oklahoma Press; 1993. ISBN 0806125411
• Nicholas Black Elk: Medicine Man, Missionary, Mystic, by Michael F. Steltenkamp, University of Oklahoma Press; 2009. 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
• Black Elk Reader, edited by Clyde Holler, Syracuse University Press; 2000

VHS Video and DVD

• Writings of Black Elk (C-SPAN, 2001) ID: 165060. From the jacket: The program, telecast from the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, contained portions of an interview with Black Elk’s great-granddaughter, a re-enactment of the battle, and looked at several artifacts from the site. Length: 2:32.

• Black Elk (C-SPAN, 2001) ID: 165105. From the jacket: Ms. Black Elk spoke about her great grandfather, his impact on U.S. history, Native American history, and tribal culture. Length: 0:34.
• Native Spirit and the Sun Dance Way, DVD documentary, 2007, World Wisdom.

See also

• Lame Deer
• Sitting Bull
• I Remain Alive: the Sioux Literary Renaissance

External links

• Heyoka magazine, Pete Catches Interview
• Black Elk at C-SPAN's American Writers: A Journey Through History