My Impressions: This is one of the most powerful and personal first person stories I’ve read from a Native American growing up and living in the northern plains of America during the final years of the Sioux nation. It’s a sad story about his unsuccessful efforts as a Sioux medicine man and shaman to forestall the demise of the Sioux Indian Nation.
He subsequently participated in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show traveling in Europe, returned and also fought US soldiers during the slaughter at Wounded Knee. Then he tells stories about his boyhood growing up in his Sioux tribe, his participation as a teenager in the Battle of Little Big Horn, followed by the subsequent difficult and unpleasant period his tribe experienced trying to maintain their way of life while being pursued and and pressured by the US Army. It begins with him describing an incredibly detailed and powerful vision he had while he was a very sick and unconscious 9 year old boy – a vision that shaped the rest of his life. Summary in 5 Sentences: This book is Black Elk as an older Oglala Sioux medicine man (in his 60s) relating his life story to a trusted “Wasichu” (white man – John Neihardt) in the presence of a couple of his friends and contemporaries, with his son translating. After reading Empire and a great discussion I was inspired to finally read what Black Elk had to say. and the SEAL reading group I’m in had selected Native American history/culture as a genre for our next session. I have been carrying Black Elk Speaks around with me for nearly 50 years. Why this book: I just finished Empire of the Summer Moonabout the Comanches and it revived my long term interest in Native American culture. I read a much older paperback version than this newer publication, which appears to include photos and other additions my copy didn’t have.
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