Black Elk (c. 1865–1950)

Recalling an Earlier Time

Black Elk's “life story” became the most popular portrayal of American Indian life. It swept readers into a 19th-century Native world that predated the coming of settlers. The holy man poignantly recalled a childhood that saw his people defeat Custer at Little Big Horn but eventually accept confinement to reservations. His biography was a sad one that told of slaughtered buffaloes and massacred friends. It made him a preeminent spokesman for a golden-age environment that had tragically vanished along with many of his people. Concluding with a prayer of hope to the “Great Spirit,” Black Elk Speaks inspired many readers to seek out other defining voices from Indian America.

The social unrest of the 1960s and 1970s produced an attentive audience for Black Elk's vision of spiritual and cultural renewal. The holy man's image was bolstered by another work that likewise experienced rebirth. Published in 1953 and often reprinted after 1971, The Sacred Pipe was subtitled Black Elk's Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux. This volume presented the holy man's detailed description of Lakota religious practice as it existed before the reservation period.

The Sacred Pipe portrayed Black Elk as a very devout man whose religion had been wrenched from his life along with everything else he held dear. Over time, he became the paradigmatic spokesman for all Native wisdom keepers. Since the publication of these seminal works, numerous Indian biographies have tried, but fallen short of, casting the same appeal.

Another View

The transcripts that served as the wellspring of Black Elk's “life story” were published in 1984, for example, in The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's Teachings Given to John G Neihardt. In this work, the Neihardt portrait contained significant omissions related to Black Elk's worldview. The transcripts also raised questions about the holy man's theology as a whole. This concern was addressed in Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala. It depicted the vivid memory that Black Elk bequeathed to those who knew him from everyday life on the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota where he lived. These Native contributors revealed that the early Black Elk books misrepresented the holy man's life and thought. Notably, his daughter expressed a concern that the books did not address what she said was her father's most significant legacy.

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