Black Elk ~ Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux
Sick and near dying
Black Elk’s vision
At nine years old as told by Black Elk 1863 – 1950:
From ‘Black Elk Speaks ~ Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux’
John G. Neihardt (Flaming Rainbow), University of Nebraska Press, originally published 1932 by William Morrow & Company
“It was dark and terrible about me
For all the winds of the world were fighting
It was like rapid gun-fire
And like whirling smoke
And like women and children
Wailing
And like horses
Screaming
All over the world…”
“….Then I was standing
On the highest mountain
Of them all
And round about beneath me
Was the whole hoop of the world
And while I stood there
I saw more than I can tell
And I understood more than I saw
For I was seeing in a sacred manner
The shapes of all things in the spirit
And the shape of all shapes
As they must live together like one being
And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people
Was one of many hoops that made one circle
Wide as daylight and as starlight
And in the centre
Grew one mighty flowering tree
To shelter all the children
Of one mother and one father
And I saw that it was Holy….”
“…I was all alone
On a brown plain now
With my feet upon the earth
Alone but for the spotted eagle guarding me
I could see my people’s village far ahead
And I walked very fast, for I was homesick now
Then I saw my own tepee
And inside I saw my mother and my father
Bending over a sick boy that was myself
And as I entered the tepee
Someone was saying:
‘The boy is coming to; you had better give him some water’
Then I was sitting up;
And I was sad because my mother and my father
Didn’t seem to know I had been so far away…”
Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux, 1863-1950:
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