Black Elk Speaks
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 nature 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.
Crazy Horse was born with name Cha-O-Ha meaning he was one with nature. He was given the nickname “Curly” because of his curly hair. His mother died when he was only four years old. He had a brother and a sister. His best friend or Kola was named Hump. When Crazy Horse was young he had a spirit vision of himself in the future telling him to never gloated and dressed just like the vision of himself for battle he would never be wounded in battle. This vision would protect him in many battles later in life. As Curly grew older he and Hump became inseparable. Together they became great hunters and shot many animals, but neither had ever been in battle. One day when he and Hump heard that a group of warriors were headed to an Omaha village. Curly and Hump went with the warriors. During the battle Curly got his first coup (touching another warrior
From the Deep Woods to Civilization should be an intriguing read for anybody interested in Native American history. It gives an introspective look into the adjustments to society many had to make at that time. Eastman's own identity follows a parabolic curve from the beginning to the end. He rediscovers his Sioux identity after questioning it. The book implores us to consider the tactics, struggles, and other problems that Indian people have had to go through to achieve success despite the odds being stacked against
his life. He was able to reach a peace of mind from which he ended his struggles, and he
watching and looking at the things around him. He said that an enemy of his
Macfarlane, James. "'Chief Of All The Sioux': An Assessment Of Sitting Bull And Lakota Unity, 1868-1876." American Nineteenth Century History 11.3 (2010): 299-320. Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Feb. 2014.
Much of the literature written by Native Americans from the Southeastern U.S. draws from traditional tribal myths. Many of these myths have been transcribed and translated into English by various ethnographers and folklorists, and, in the case of the Cherokee, myths have been collected and published in acclaimed books. Anthropologist James Mooney, an employee of the federal government at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, collected a large number of mythological stories from informants during his years of fieldwork among the Eastern Band of the Cherokee in western North Carolina; Mooney incorporated that material into the important compilation Myths of the Cherokee (1900). A century later, folklorist Barbara R. Duncan, a researcher employed by the Museum of the Cherokee...
learned the tough ships of life and it is what got him to help others throughout. Another thing
There’s not a women more important than a mom. From her you can learn lots of things or just an entire life. Ellen Bryant Voigt, a writer and a teacher, gets inspired mostly in nature, family, and music(PF). So “lesson” wasn 't an exception, it focused more in motherhood. Published in ellen’s book “shadow of heaven”. It is a narrative, but also a conversation poem. It shows a conversation between a mom and his/her son/daughter, but also some narrative, specially at the last stanza. This is a powerful poem, it brings a bittersweet feeling after you read it, probably more bitter than sweet. It first stars with a touchable feeling that it 's going to be a daily lesson from your mom, but then it turns out into a life lesson. It combines moms social life in the beginning by telling she was a teacher just ellen is and then in the second stanza her personal life by describing her cancer that caused her breast being taken away. The end is something to love because it shows all a mom or anyone can ask for and that is, support from your loved ones under any circumstances. A mom can teach many
throngs of people to seek a friendship with their surrounding world. He had a way
into the Native American way of life and some of the hardships that can befall the victims
In American Indian Stories, University of Nebraska Press Lincoln and London edition, the author, Zitkala-Sa, tries to tell stories that depicted life growing up on a reservation. Her stories showed how Native Americans reacted to the white man’s ways of running the land and changing the life of Indians. “Zitkala-Sa was one of the early Indian writers to record tribal legends and tales from oral tradition” (back cover) is a great way to show that the author’s stories were based upon actual events in her life as a Dakota Sioux Indian. This essay will describe and analyze Native American life as described by Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories, it will relate to Native Americans and their interactions with American societies, it will discuss the major themes of the book and why the author wrote it, it will describe Native American society, its values and its beliefs and how they changed and it will show how Native Americans views other non-Natives.
knowledge that is obvious, and the desire that he has for it is blinding and he
that was used by Indians to designate the white man, but having no reference to the color of his skin. Black Elk describes the life of Indians, which is very spiritual and could be very unattainable to understand to the naked eye of a regular person who did not know all the Indians’ beliefs. While still young, at the age of nine, Black Elk had a vision where he was the leader of all his people. Where he was given a gift from Great Spirits to save the Indian civilization by driving a way the Wasichus from their native land. After the dream, he was courageous and willing to go fight the barbarians.
and oft-repeated fasts enabled him to commune with spirits and see far into the future.