Black Elk Speaks 215It would mean unifying a broken people and reem-
powering them by resurrecting the slaughtered bison
and deceased ancestors. Unfortunately, such hope
in the face of oppression is short-lived, for events
such as the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 all
but destroy the cultural or political visibility of the
Lakota people.
Michael Moreno
spirituality in Black Elk Speaks
While Black Elk Speaks is a historical and politi-
cal account of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Nation
in the 19th century, it is also regarded by many as
an important narrative of conviction and spiritual-
ity. Throughout this turbulent era of American
expansionism and the Indian Wars, visions of oth-
erworldly images and sacred rituals performed by
his community call and guide Black Elk (Hehaka
Sapa), a renowned holy man and healer. Charged
with the task of bringing his broken people together
and healing the “sacred hoop” of their unity, Black
Elk learns through trial and error how lonely and
yet empowering it is to be chosen for such an auspi-
cious duty.
Black Elk’s first vision comes to him when he
is only nine years old. While traveling with his
community, who are following the seasonal bison
migrations, Black Elk suddenly falls ill and begins
to envision a great landscape in the clouds with
dancing horses and six sacred and ancient spirits.
These spirits, whom he refers to as “the Grandfa-
thers,” offer him words of wisdom and prophecy
while imparting important gifts, which symbolize
Black Elk’s role as a spiritual leader in his com-
munity. Holy items—such as a wooden cup whose
liquid reflects the sky, a peace pipe adorned with
the image of an outstretched eagle, and a flower-
ing staff that serves as the symbolic “sacred tree”
of the Lakota community—are imparted to Black
Elk, thus anointing him as a shaman and spiritual
guide for others. These visions and the mission of
mending the sacred hoop of his fractured people
are both awesome and daunting tasks for Black Elk
as a young boy. For several years, he is reluctant to
share this experience with others for fear that “the
part of [him] that talks would try to make words for
meaning” but would only come across “like fog and
get away from [him].” Nevertheless, as a witness to
the suffering and genocide of his nation, Black Elk
uses his spirituality and the mission with which he
has been empowered as a vehicle for his own matu-
ration into adulthood. The crimes and abuses com-
mitted by the U.S. Army only bolster his testimony
against these atrocities recounted throughout Black
Elk Speaks.
Chief Crazy Horse, Black Elk’s famous relative,
had a similar vision and mission when he was just a
boy. Black Elk thus recognizes that power and con-
fidence can come through using his ancestral gifts
to strengthen his community. As such, an important
part of his spiritual development occurs when he
realizes that the world of spirits “is the real world
that is behind this one, and everything we see here is
something like a shadow from that world.” This new
perspective gives Black Elk the ability to transform
his vision into a ritual act that the community can
perform. Making a direct connection between the
mundane world and the spiritual realm, he believes,
will heal his people and deliver them from further
disenfranchisement by the Wasichus (white men).
The first of these rituals that Black Elk and
the elders orchestrate occurs when he is 15 years
old. Using members of the community as stand-ins
for the dancing horses and the grandfathers of the
original vision, Black Elk inaugurates the Sacred
Horse Dance as a way to bring the community
together, to offer its members hope and comfort,
and to draw “a shadow cast upon the earth” as a way
to illustrate the Lakota’s direct association with the
ancient and spiritual realm of their ancestors. As a
simple conduit for this spiritual vision, Black Elk
maintains that the ritual is necessary to generate a
lasting power, and that performing this vision with
his people is the only way to make the spirit of the
ancestors come alive.
In Black Elk Speaks, imitating this outer world of
the spirits brings the Lakota community closer to a
unifying source of energy and wisdom. Recreating
sacred circles during the rituals performed is, thus,
integral in mending the sacred hoop. Black Elk says,
“Everything the Power of the World does is done
in a circle”; therefore, erasing the division between
these worlds becomes a way to regenerate an
identity for his people and make all things cyclical