Nevertheless, Jackson’s sensitive and reasoned handling of the Black Elk-Neihardt collaboration (I don’t have the space to contour the extent of the controversy surrounding Black Elk Speaks) keeps things moving along at a good pace. Neihardt, that celebrates Neihardt's remarkable accomplishments; and a look at the legacy of the special relationship between Neihardt and Black Elk, written by Lori Utecht, editor of Knowledge and Opinion: Essays and Literary Criticism of John G. Black Elk wants to seek revenge after the Wounded Knee Massacre, but Chief Red Cloud ultimately convinces Indians that their situation is too dire and that it is in their best interest to surrender. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young.

Black Elk Speaks : Nebraska Press Black Elk Speaks : Nebraska Press

Unless we knew and practiced a "oneness of humanity" (to borrow a phrase from the Baha'i' faith - a group that once gave me an award for anti-racism work in schools! This book is a memoir of the first thirtyish years of his life, not-so-ghostwritten by John Neihardt, a white Nebraskan poet. Restated in modern terms, the power is that of the natural world's closed loop system of life fueled by life, recycling the essential elements of physical being for a continuum of life. But if you look further into the book, there are just too many discrepancies between Black Elk's life and the story that is written. Readers of Black Elk Speaks may be surprised to look up key episodes in the volume in the raw transcripts of their conversations, only to find that they were entirely invented by Neihardt.I also met Black Elk's granddaughter Betty, a noble and kind-hearted woman who welcomes hungry travelers daily for a home-cooked meal in the small restaurant she runs out of her house on the reservation. Neihardt's daughter, Hilda Neihardt, says Black Elk adopted her, her sister, and their father as relatives, giving each of them Lakota names. Black Elk was born into a family of line of medicine men and was presumed by his family to carry on the family tradition so he was taught by his elders the things he would need to know as a medicine man. Many regard Black Elk Speaks as a somewhat problematic work due to issues of authenticity that arise from Neihardt’s authorship.

Black Elk Speaks by Black Elk | Goodreads Black Elk Speaks by Black Elk | Goodreads

That even in the middle of one of America's great cities, having long ago replaced the vast beds of coastal sage and peaceable people, there remain ghostly encounters with a very real pre-European past. Instead of being bitter toward all white men (the fork-tongued, who didn’t honor their treaties), he acknowledged all those who had done him good or impressed him. They were not only two of the most famous people ever to put South Dakota on the map, but they both told their stories, for the first time, in print, in 1932. Neihardt, already the Nebraska poet laureate, received the necessary permission from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to go to the Pine Ridge Reservation.Other examples include the circle (hoop), which not only symbolizes life's cyclical journey, but also represents a way of life in interacting with each other in a circular fashion to negate power struggles. The Legacy of 'Black Elk': Native American actors hope that the historical epic play will make audiences question ethnic stereotypes and help raise their artistic visibility".