Black Elk Speaks
Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux, the Premier Edition
Neihardt, John G.
Paperback
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BOOK SUMMARY
The famous life story of the Lakota healer and visionary, Nicholas Black Elk.
Submit a book reviewBOOK SYNOPSIS
Black Elk Speaks is widely hailed as a religious classic, one of the best spiritual books of the modern era and the bestselling book of all time by an American Indian. This inspirational and unfailingly powerful story reveals the life and visions of the Lakota healer Nicholas Black Elk (1863–1950) and the tragic history of his Sioux people during the epic closing decades of the Old West. In 1930, the aging Black Elk met a kindred spirit, the famed poet, writer, and critic John G. Neihardt (1881–1973) on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The Lakota elder chose Neihardt to share his visions and life with the world. Neihardt understood and today Black Elk is known to all.
Black Elk’s remarkable great vision came to him during a time of decimation and loss, when outsiders were stealing the Lakotas’ land, slaughtering buffalo, and threatening their age-old way of life. As Black Elk remembers all too well, the Lakotas, led by such legendary men as Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, fought unceasingly for their freedom, winning a world-renowned victory at the Little Bighorn and suffering unspeakable losses at Wounded Knee.
Black Elk Speaks however is more than the epic history of a valiant Native nation. It is beloved as a spiritual classic because of John Neihardt’s sensitivity to Black Elk’s resounding vision of the wholeness of earth, her creatures, and all of humanity. Black Elk Speaks is a once-in-a-lifetime read: the moving story of a young Lakota boy before the reservation years, the unforgettable history of an American Indian nation, and an enduring spiritual message for us all.
The premier edition features the first-ever annotated edition of Black Elk’s story, done by renowned Lakota scholar Raymond J. DeMallie, the original Standing Bear illustrations and new commentary on them, new maps of the world of Black Elk Speaks, and a revised index.
AUTHOR BIO
Johnathan (John) Gneisenau Neihardt (January 8, 1881 – November 24, 1973) was an American author of poetry and prose, an amateur historian and ethnographer, and a philosopher of the Great Plains. Born at the end of the American settlement of the Plains, his attention was nevertheless drawn to the experiences and memories of those who had been a part of the European migration as well as the American Indian cultures they displaced. He traveled down the Missouri River by open boat, visited with old trappers, became familiar with a number of Indian communities, and did extensive research throughout the Plains and Rocky Mountains. He then wrote to preserve these memories from the pioneer past in books that range across a broad variety of styles, from pleasant travelogue to epic poetry to extended narration of the dreams of a shaman. In 1921 the Nebraska Legislature elected him as the state's poet laureate, a title he held for fifty-two years until his death.
--Wikipedia
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Maps
Preface to the 1932 Edition
Preface to the 1961 Edition
Preface to the 1972 Edition
1. The Offering of the Pipe
2. Early Boyhood
3. The Great Vision
4. The Bison Hunt
5. At the Soldiers’ Town
6. High Horse’s Courting
7. Wasichus in the Hills
8. The Fight with Three Stars
9. The Rubbing Out of Long Hair
10. Walking the Black Road
11. The Killing of Crazy Horse
12. Grandmother’s Land
13. The Compelling Fear
14. The Horse Dance
15. The Dog Vision
16. Heyoka Ceremony
17. The First Cure
18. The Powers of the Bison and the Elk
19. Across the Big Water
20. The Spirit Journey
21. The Messiah
22. Visions of the Other World
23. Bad Trouble Coming
24. The Butchering at Wounded Knee
25. The End of the Dream
26. Neihardt’s Postscript
Appendix 1. Letter from Neihardt to Black Elk, 6 November 1930
The Drawings by Black Elk’s Friend, Standing Bear
John g. Neihardt and Nicholas Black Elk
References
Index
BOOK REVIEWS
"…the compelling story of a cross-cultural collaboration that continues to engage scholars and lay readers alike."
— CHOICE
"If this title is not yet in your home or school library … take note of the surprisingly low price and the high quality of what SUNY Press calls The Premier Edition of this great work.
— Light of Consciousness
"If any great religious classic has emerged in this century or on this continent, it must certainly be judged in the company of Black Elk Speaks… [T]he book has become a North American bible of all tribes … it speaks to us with simple and compelling language about an aspect of human experience and encourages us to emphasize the best that dwells within us…"
— Vine Deloria Jr.
"The experience of Black Elk … comes to one great statement, which for me is a key statement to the understanding of myth and symbols."
— Joseph Campbell in an interview with Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth
"It is sufficient that Black Elk Speaks is an extraordinarily human document—and beyond that the record of a profoundly spiritual journey, the pilgrimage of a people towards their historical fulfillment and culmination, towards the accomplishment of a worthy destiny."
— N. Scott Momaday
"If a religious text of powerful import occurred in the twentieth century, it was Black Elk Speaks. If both Eastern (Buddhist/Taoist) and Western (Judeo-Christian/Muslim) religious canons are to be challenged and grounded in new theology, a major source will be Black Elk Speaks."
— Whole Earth, 2000
FOR RELATED BOOKS
Biography & Autobiography Books :: Native Americans Books
MORE BOOK INFO
ISBN: 1438425406
ISBN(13-digit): 9781438425405
Dewey Decimal: 978.004/9752440092
Library of Congress: 2008038002
Book Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr
Language: ENG
No. of Pages: 334
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