Black Elk goes deer hunting with his father and feels back in the world of his vision when he hears the whistle of a spotted eagle. He tells his father that they need not pursue the deer because the deer will be brought to them, and that comes to pass; […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 5 – At the Soldiers’ TownSummary and Analysis Chapter 4 – The Bison Hunt
Black Elk feels alienated from those around him and wishes he were back in the place of his vision. He goes hunting to forget about the vision, but cannot shoot a bird because he remembers that the Grandfathers of his vision told him he would be a relative of the […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 4 – The Bison HuntSummary and Analysis Chapter 3 – The Great Vision
Black Elk is eating when he hears a voice telling him to hurry because his Grandfathers are waiting. He grows sick and cannot walk. His legs, arms, and face swell up. The Indians are moving camp, but he is so ill he has to be carried. When he is laid […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 3 – The Great VisionSummary and Analysis Chapter 2 – Early Boyhood
Black Elk is an Ogalala Lakota, born in the Moon of the Popping Trees during the Winter When the Four Crows Were Killed (December 1863). Three years later, his father was wounded in the Battle of the Hundred Slain (the Fetterman Fight). During the first three years of Black Elk’s […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 2 – Early BoyhoodSummary and Analysis Chapter 1 – The Offering of the Pipe
Analysis In this initial chapter, Black Elk endorses John Neihardt as the person through whom he will tell his story, which is part autobiography, part spiritual revelation, and part tribal history. He emphasizes that his own life story is also the story of his tribe and that, in fact, it […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 1 – The Offering of the PipeCharacter List
Black Elk (1863-1950) Oglala Sioux holy man and healer; also the name of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. White Cow Sees Black Elk’s mother. Refuse-to-Go Black Elk’s maternal grandfather. Plenty Eagle Feathers Black Elk’s maternal grandmother. Standing Bear Minneconjou Sioux; Black Elk’s friend from childhood, who participated in the Battle […]
Read more Character ListAbout Black Elk Speaks
Black Elk Speaks is an example of personal narrative, which is, most simply, the story of someone’s experiences narrated by that person. Memoir, autobiography, and published diaries — like Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, for example, or The Diary of Anne Frank — are traditional versions of the personal narrative. More precisely, […]
Read more About Black Elk SpeaksBook Summary
Neihardt frames Black Elk Speaks with his Preface and Author’s Postscript, which, though modest, remind readers of an editing presence. In these two pieces, Neihardt describes the circumstances of his conversation with Black Elk. Chapters 1 and 2 are preliminary to the description of the great vision in Chapter 3; […]
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