Black Elk moves on to the agency being built for the Oglala, Pine Ridge, which the Indians call the Seat of Red Cloud or the Place Where Everything Is Disputed. The winter is hard; he longs for spring, when the spirits of his vision will return. He feels the deep […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 15 – The Dog VisionSummary and Analysis Chapter 14 – The Horse Dance
Analysis This chapter presents the importance for the Sioux of acting out the private vision of Black Elk in a public ritual for the entire community to see. It emphasizes the esteem in which the visionary was held, and the shared understanding that the power of the vision would pass […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 14 – The Horse DanceSummary and Analysis Chapter 13 – The Compelling Fear
The people escape successfully and cross the Missouri on a steamboat. They camp with other Indians who are also off the reservation. Soldiers take away their guns and most of their horses. The Indians conduct a sun dance and Black Elk, at the age of sixteen, can now think of […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 13 – The Compelling FearSummary and Analysis Chapter 12 – Grandmother’s Land
The winter is difficult, but in the midst of a blizzard, the voices of his vision guide Black Elk to a herd of bison. He and his father come across two other Lakota on their way to the bison, and together they slaughter eight of them. They butcher them, and […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 12 – Grandmother’s LandSummary and Analysis Chapter 11 – The Killing of Crazy Horse
Soldiers bring Crazy Horse into Fort Robinson (Soldiers’ Town) with the understanding that he will not be harmed if he will simply come and talk to the Wasichu chief, but the soldiers lied. Black Elk later learns that he was imprisoned. When he tries to fight his way out with […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 11 – The Killing of Crazy HorseSummary and Analysis Chapter 10 – Walking the Black Road
The hard winter comes early. Many Indians resign from war. Indian agencies are established, and some Indian bands go to the agencies. Those who do not, like Black Elk’s group, are almost starving. The Indians eat their ponies that died of starvation. In November, Col. Mackenzie attacks a band of […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 10 – Walking the Black RoadSummary and Analysis Chapter 9 – The Rubbing Out of Long Hair
The medicine man Hairy Chin dresses and paints Black Elk as a bear to participate in a curing ceremony for Rattling Hawk, who was shot in the hip at the Battle of the Rosebud the week before. When Black Elk dresses as a bear, he regains some sense of his […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 9 – The Rubbing Out of Long HairSummary and Analysis Chapter 8 – The Fight with Three Stars
When the sun dance is over, Indian scouts enter the camp and report that Crazy Horse has routed soldiers who were camping up the river, prepared to attack during the sun dance. Black Elk’s friend Iron Hawk, a Hunkpapa who was with Crazy Horse that day, relates the story of […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 8 – The Fight with Three StarsSummary and Analysis Chapter 7 – Wasichus in the Hills
Later, Black Elk learns that the threat came from General Custer (whom he calls Pahuska or Long Hair) who had entered the Black Hills. The terms of the 1868 treaty that Red Cloud signed with the U.S. government, giving the land to the Sioux, forbade Custer’s advance into the Black […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 7 – Wasichus in the HillsSummary and Analysis Chapter 6 – High Horse’s Courting
Analysis In a novel, this anecdote would be called an inset story — a complete and separate story set within the larger narrative. Black Elk repeats a story to entertain and emphasize the values of the group. The story shows the bravery and ingenuity of the courting Indian, for example, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 6 – High Horse’s Courting