Black Elk Speaks 213Wounded Knee in 1890. These pivotal events are
told through the eyes and voice of a Lakota sha-
man, while recasting the history of the 19th-century
North American continent in a new and critical
light.
Likewise, Black Elk Speaks underscores the polit-
ical turmoil broiling between the American forces
and the Lakota hierarchy. Treaties that are signed
between leaders in Washington, D.C., and puppet
chiefs are dissolved with ease by the U.S. Army
when Lakota territories prove to be too rich with
resources, such as gold, to remain in the hands of
nonwhites. Making the Lakota tribal communi-
ties politically weak and dependent on government
handouts further guarantees the passivity of Black
Elk’s people. This is certainly the case concerning
the “Hangs-Around-the-Fort” people who forfeit
their lands, rights, and resources to become reliant
on the U.S. Army for survival. More than just an ele-
giac chronicle of a people, Black Elk Speaks is a spiri-
tual text that articulates the greater Native American
consciousness while forging a path toward recovery
and restoration from the crucible of abandonment
and oppression.
Michael Moreno
cOmmunity in Black Elk Speaks
Widespread colonization and the genocide of Native
American tribes throughout the 19th century radi-
cally transformed the structure and power of indig-
enous communities, particularly the Lakota nation
to which Black Elk belonged. Whereas ritual actions
and customs throughout the community had served
for countless centuries to articulate and define the
identity of tribal members, Black Elk relates how
his own community slowly begins to break down as
the “Wasichus” (white Americans) annex ancestral
territories and relocate tribal members to “small
islands” (reservations) throughout his lifetime. Here
in these small islands, remaining members of the
Lakota community are disarmed, politically disen-
franchised, and economically ruined to ensure their
subservience to white American authority.
An integral symbol Black Elk employs in his
narrative to define his community is the “sacred
hoop.” The circle, itself a universal image of cease-
less cycles of life and power, represents the entire
cosmological framework for Black Elk’s community.
“You have noticed that everything an Indian does is
in a circle,” Black Elk relates, “and that is because
the Power of the World always works in circles....
The life of a man is a circle from childhood to child-
hood, and so it is in everything where power moves.”
This sacred hoop, in turn, represents the solidarity
of the Lakota nation. As such, community virtues
such as sharing and providing for each other is an
integral component to the survival, success, and
proliferation of Black Elk’s community. This posits
the Lakotas in opposition to the white colonizers,
whose goals are predicated on ceaseless consump-
tion of the land and its resources and the primacy of
individual happiness.
With the decimation of the bison and white
acquisition and seizure of native lands, many of the
Lakota tribes watch their sacred hoops fracture and
disintegrate under the heavy weight of the American
republic’s westward expansion. Unable to compete
with American military power or political double-
talk from Washington, many tribal communities
base themselves near soldier camps in an effort to
survive. Black Elk identifies Chief Red Cloud’s
people as the “Hangs-Around-The-Fort” people, for
they are one community who embrace the emerging
hegemonic authority and think little of permitting
ad hoc native chiefs and leaders to sell off remain-
ing land claims sought after by the military and
industrialists. As a respected visionary and mystic
healer, Black Elk believes it is his duty to mend the
broken sacred hoop of his community and restore
his people’s dignity and power. However, major set-
backs—such as the exodus of much of his tribe into
“Grandmother’s Land” (Canada); the assassination
of Crazy Horse, their brave leader; and the infamous
massacre at Wounded Knee—discourage Black Elk
and makes him realize the grave circumstances of
his diminishing community. He says, “If a man or
woman or child dies, it does not matter long, for the
nation lives on. It was the nation that was dying, and
the vision was for the nation; but I have done noth-
ing with [this vision].”
Despite the new protest dances, such as the
Horse Dance and the Ghost Dance, rituals adapted
from other indigenous tribes in an effort to reinvigo-
rate the customs and culture of indigenous commu-