Black Elk Speaks :: essays research papers

Black wapiti SpeaksThe book Black Elk Speaks was written in the early 1930s by author JohnG. Nei with child(p)t, by and by interviewing the medicine man summonsd Black Elk. Neihardt wasalready a published writer, and former to this particular narrative he was atwork publishing a collection of poems titled Cycle of the West. Although he wasinitiall(a)y seeking infor-mation slightly a peculiar Native Ameri suffer religiousmovement that occurred at the end of the 19th century for the conclusion hispoetry collection, Neihardt was instead talented with the flooring of Black Elkslife. Black Elks words would explain much roughly the nature of information as intumesceas the lives of the Sioux and other tribes of that period. The priest or holy man calling himself Black Elk was innate(p) in theDecember of 1863, to a family in the Ogalala wad of the Sioux. Black Elksfamily was well known, and he counted the famed Crazy Horse as a champ andcousin. Black Elks family was likewise ac knowledged as a family of wise men,with two his father and grandfather themselves being holy men bearing the nameBlack Elk. The youngest Black Elk soon experienced a resource as a young boy, a survey of the wisdom inbuilt in the earth that would direct him toward his truecalling of being a wichasha wakon or holy man like his predecessors. BlackElks childhood vision stayed with him throughout his life, and it offered himaid 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 bunk as aleader and wise man in the Ogalala band of the Sioux.The wisdom possessed by Black Elk is immediately yield in hisrecollections of various lessons learned by himself and by others. These storiesran the whole contrivance of life experiences from the most innocent acts of a boy inlove, to the hard les-sons learned from the treachery of the whites. Throughthese stories a greater insight can be gained into the ways of the Sioux, aswell as lessons into the nature of all men. Most important in these lessons onthe nature of man was wisdom, and in all of Black Elks recollections somewherea deeper wisdom can be found.The story of High Horses Courting stands out as a stark(a) example ofone of Black Elks narratives. Typically, Black Elks narratives try to bestowa lesson (or les-sons) that the listener can learn from, just as the subject ofthe story sometimes does.