Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux, The Premier Edition

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The prominent psychologist Carl Jung read the book in the 1930s and urged its translation into German; in 1955, it was published as Ich rufe mein Volk ( I Call My People). [3] It is not some fanciful romanticized Cowboys and Indians tale of the sort on which I was raised. It is another version of the truth, one in which an honorable, dignified, and ancient culture were systematically cheated, misled, murdered, and ultimately destroyed in the name of western progress. John Neihardt's classic is a problematic read to be sure. On the one hand, Neihardt was a sympathetic interlocutor who elicited a fascinating account from an extraordinary man who lived through several major episodes in late-19th-century history. On the other hand, his poetic pretensions led him to rearrange and dress up that testimony, adorning it with his own mediocre neo-Romantic insight, and altogether distorting the historical and cultural record. I'm trained to be suspicious of stories like this: an old Lakota shaman decides to tell all about his previously secret visions to a white poet so he can write them in English and publish them. ??! But a shallow-digging internet search does not turn up anything suggesting against this, so okay. It's my favorite time of year, and I've got all the liquids in my cauldrons bubbling on the stove: soup, applesauce, Love Potion #9, and my standard Witches Brew (for poisoning).

Now what I did like about this book was that part of the Sioux history that I have not read before, their life once confined to reservations. While the book did deal with the tribe's history before the end of hostilities and included the incidents of Sand Creek, Fetterman's Ambush, Little Big Horn, and Wounded Knee, this history has been treated with greater depth and detail in other works. This earlier history, however, did set the stage for the tragedy of reservation life and the degradation of the Sioux culture. This part of Indian history can easily provoke discussion and debate and this part of the book is what really saved it for me. I can understand the harsh treatment of Indians in the 19th century when memories of the hostilities were still fresh and the participants still alive but the treatment persisted into the 20th century with no real improvement. The very idea of the need for change doesn't even seem to exist until after Neihardt's book is published and read by a few people in positions to affect change. Another sad part of our history with Native Americans. Not coincidentally, perhaps, the book also appears to have had a direct and profound influence on many novels I’ve loved: James Welch’s Fool’s Crow and The Heartsong of Charging Elk; Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, and my own novel, Will Poole’s Island. One of the stage presentations was the first 'paying gig' for Wes Studi, with the lead played by none other than David Carradine. [10] See also [ edit ]Neihardt, John G (1955). Ich rufe mein Volk: Leben, Traum und Untergang der Ogalalla-Sioux von Schwarzer Hirsch [Übers. von Siegfried Lang] (1st Germaned.). Olten: Walter Verlag. ISBN 3889775411. You have said to me, when I was still young and could hope, that in difficulty I should send a voice four times, once for each quarter of the earth, and you would hear me. The way I see it, I can either stop everything and read this book alone for the rest of 2020, or I can finish my challenge like the overachiever I am. Uppermost though, it is the story of a people that were self-sacrificing for the good of all, that only wanted to live with Nature as they always had, even on what little was left them in treaties. The obstacles were overwhelming though, with the greed of the weedy materialistic culture wanting all there was, and having no respect for the natural world. It is an age old story of avarice and genocide, this genocide the greatest by far in humankind's history [see Genocide of indigenous peoples, and Genocides in history articles on Wikipedia], estimated at upwards of ninety percent of the Indigenous population. According to geographers from University College London, the colonization of the Americas by Europeans killed so many people it resulted in climate change and global cooling.

Therefore I am sending a voice Great Spirit, my Grandfather, forgetting nothing you have made, the stars of the universe and the grasses of the earth. From the west you have given me the cup of living water and the sacred bow, the power to make life and to destroy. You have given me a sacred wind and and an herb from where the white giant lives --- the cleansing power and the healing. The daybreak star and the pipe, you have given from the east; and from the south, the nation's sacred hoop and the tree that was to bloom. To the centre of the world you have taken me and showed the goodness and the beauty and the strangeness of the greening earth, the only mother --- and there the spirit shapes of things, as they should be, you have shown to me and I have seen. At the centre of this sacred hoop you have said that I should make the tree to bloom.

Also of Interest

Sākotnēji indiāņi tika radīti kā ļoti enerģētiski spējīga un jaudīga tauta, viņi sadarbojās ar stihijām, perfekti pārzināja stihiju valodas kā gari runā, viņi mācēja runāt vēja valodā, zemes valodā utml. Why read something that isn’t enjoyable? Where do you derive enjoyment and satisfaction, from learning, or from being blissfully unaware? 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 number four also has special significance, as in the elements of Earth, fire, air, and water; the seasons of winter, spring, summer and fall; and the primary directions of North, South, East, and West. Symbols can also be used in combination, such as a circle divided into quarters with four arrows signifying wisdom, innocence, foresight, and soul-searching. Les Wasichus nous ont mis dans ces boites carrées (maisons), notre pouvoir s'en est allé et nous allons mourir parce que le pouvoir n'est plus en nous.

Diemžēl laika gaitā indiāņi ir pakāpeniski kļuvuši par ļoti izkropļotu tautu un vispār nevar salīdzināt ar tās sākotnējo potenciālu. Ironically, 'Star Wars' would lead me to Joseph Campbell and comfort with the idea that there is a great deal encoded in our genes that invisibly effects our behavior. Hearing the Lakota side of the stories of their battles with the U.S. to hold on to the land and to maintain the culture that they loved so much was so eye-opening and personal to me. My heart aches for the victims of this American holocaust. Although harder for our scientific western culture to fathom, it is also possible to see these visions as visions, experienced by a person who was open to them by either illness or ability.The book as published in 1932 had little readership, but its translation into German inspired Jung and others, and a new English edition in 1961 reached a wider audience that peaked in the 70’s. It's a sad tale. There were a few helpful and kind people mentioned, like John Neihardt, but the good discovered is minuscule compared to the near total destruction. It is also a source of hope that people may recognize that great ideas are very hard to express, and may come to use through many imperfect attempts, all beautiful. The author did a thorough job in researching this book and there was plenty of material to pull from. I think some of the chapters such as those covering the Battle at Little Bighorn and Massacre at Wounded Knee have been written better by others but the writing was still good. I think the latter 1/2 of the book was fresh. The author also wrote an excellent epilogue that summarized some of the challenges facing Pine Ridge in modern times.

His story and image were preserved and advanced when the Western poet John Neihardt wrote about him in the 1940s. grāmata ir par Ziemeļamerikas indiāņu tautas nežēlīgas iznīcināšanas aculiecinieku stāstījumu par tautai liktenīgiem notikumiem 19.gs. otrajā pusē.

Harney Peak was named for General William Selby Harney, the American soldier who’d delivered the decisive blow of the First Sioux War in 1855, by demolishing the camp of Little Thunder’s Brule at Blue Water Creek, near present-day Ash Hollow, Nebraska. On August 11, 2016, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names removed Harney’s name from the prominence. This should be required reading for all. The way Indians were treated is overlooked and frankly, we should all pause to understand how our lives were influenced in some way by the broken promises of our ancestors. It's disgusting, disappointing, disrespectful. The way Indians were abused, the disease the settlers spread, and how Indians still pay 150 years later with poverty, alcoholism, and perhaps worst of all, the loss of their identity. Damn. Both books were well-received, but Ms. Wilder's illustrated story of a simple family life was a bigger hit during The Great Depression than a complicated story of the relocation and decimation of an entire race of people. Still, he’s a fascinating subject, and this biography, in my view, does him justice as a flawed man of immense strength and passion who lived through some of the most heart-wrenching and momentous years of American history. I’m tempted to call him a great American, but that would be reductive. He was a great human, and he belongs not only to America but to the whole world. And I, to whom so great a vision was given in my youth—you see me now a pitiful old man who has done nothing, for the nation’s hoop is broken and scattered. There is no center any longer, and the sacred tree is dead.