Black Elk Speaks (42 page)

8
.
The Lakota word translated as “nation” is oyáte’ people’, in the sense of a social group. It is used not only for humans but also for animals (for example, the four-legged nation, the buffalo nation); birds (the winged nation); celestial phenomena (stars), and any other type of lining thing. Here, “finished” means “created.”

9
.
The White Giant is Wazíya, the spirit of the North. He is a contrary figure who wraps himself in his robe during the summer, but removes it in winter, shaking it to produce snow. See Walker
, Lakota Belief and Ritual,
120–21
.

10
.
This is a traditional Lakota prayer. Standing Bear commented to Neihardt that he first heard it when he was twenty years old
(Sixth Grandfather, 285).

11
.
Héchetu yeló! ‘So it is!’

12
.
The Lakotas believe that when men smoke a sacred pipe in common, “its influences are supposed to bind them together forever in amicable relationship” (Walker
, Lakota Belief and Ritual, 90).

1
. Lakhóta
‘Allies’ is the self-designation of the Western Sioux; they comprise seven tribes: the
Oglála,
Brule
(
),
Minneconjou
(
),
Hunkpapa
(
),
Two Kettles
(Oóhenupa),
No Bows
(Itázipchola),
and Black foot Sioux
(Sihásapa).
See DeMallie, “Sioux Until
1850,” 718–60.

2
.
The Pawnees, a Caddoan-speaking tribe, lived in earthlodge villages in east-central Nebraska. They and the Lakotas warred with one another until the federal government removed the Pawnees to Oklahoma in the 1870s. See Parks, ��Pawnee
,” 515–47.

3
.
Months were designated by moons and named to reflect the changing of the seasons. Ch
náphopa wi ‘popping trees moon’ refers to the loud cracking of trees during the coldest part of the winter. For Black Elk’s list of names of the moons, see
Sixth Grandfather, 291-92;
compare Walker
, Lakota Society, 123.

4
.
Years were designated as “winters,” beginning with the first snowfall, and were named after memorable events. Pictographic calendars (waníyetu yawapi ‘winter counts’) served to record the passing winters, the names serving the same function as dates in Euroamerican culture. See Walker
, Lakota Society, 111-57.
The winter count collection preserved in the Smithsonian Institution is published in Greene and Thornton
, The Year the Stars Fell.

5
.
Lt. Col. W. J. Fetterman and his command were killed in the battle called “the Hundred Slain,” following a Cheyenne prophecy that the Indians would kill one hundred soldiers. The actual number, as Neihardt notes, was less. For White Bull’s eyewitness account of the battle, see Vestal
, Warpath, 50–69,
and Howard
, The Warrior Who Killed Custer, 37–38.
A detailed account from the Cheyenne perspective isgiven in Powell
, People of the Sacred Mountain, 1:451–61.
Also see
Hyde, Red Cloud’s Folk, 145–49.

6
.
Black Elk’s grandfather told him that, before white men came, the term wašícu designated buffalo in large herds, and he associated it with fat. Unfortunately, this section of the transcript is confusing. Many folk etymologies have developed to explain the name, including “fat-takers” and “big talkers,” both of which Black Elk mentions. See
Sixth Grandfather, 150-51.
Neihardt’s summary here, “That they are many,” represents a part of what Black Elk said
.

7
. This was the Bozeman Trail, a cut off from the Oregon Trail on the North Platte River that led through Wyoming to the gold fields of Montana. See Hebard and Brininstool
, The Bozeman Trail, vol. 1, 211-35.
First blazed in 1862, the trail went through the Lakota hunting grounds and was the major source of contention that led to what is often called Red Cloud’s War, 1866-68. The Lakotas designate gold by the expression mázaska-zi ‘yellow; white–metal,’that is, “yellow silver.”

8
. The historical record shows that when Lakotas first met white people they called them wašìcu ‘spirits.’ See White, “Encounters with Spirits,” 381–93. Over time the term has lost its primary connotation as spirit and has come to be used almost exclusively as a designation for white people
.

9
.
Drinks Water’s Lakota name was probably Wíyatke ‘Drinking Cup’; in his 1944 interviews with Black Elk Neihardt recorded the name as “Wooden Cup.” See Sixth
Grandfather,
290, 337–41
.

*
The Fetterman Fight, commonly described as a “massacre,” in which Captain Fetterman and 81 men were wiped out on Peno Creek near Fort Phil Kearney, December 21, 1866.
⁵

*
A term used to designate the white man, but having no reference to the color of his skin.
⁸

*
Cheyennes.
¹⁴

†
Arapahoes.
¹⁵

*
Because of its current colloquial usage as a vapid sentimentalism, the expression may well seem off key in the mouth of the grizzled old warrior.

*
The Wagon Box Fight, which took place about six miles west of Fort Phillip Kearney on August 2, 1867.
²³

*
Breech-loading Springfields.
²⁵

10
.
The Lakotas believed that buffalo were created within the womb of mother earth and that, in times of evil, they returned under ground. Wind Cave, near the Black Hills, was believed to be a conduit to that underground world. See George Bushotter
in Dorsey, “A Study of Siouan Cults,” 476–77.

11
.
Fort Phil Kearny, established by the U. S. Army June 13,1866, to protect travelers on the Bozeman Trail (Prucha, Military Posts of the United States, 97). For a very readable history, see Brown,
Fort Phil Kearny.

12
.
For the life of Crazy Horse, see Sandoz
, Crazy Horse: Strange Man of the Oglalas,
and Bray
, Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life
; for Red Cloud, see Paul,
Autobiography of Red Cloud
; Olson,
Red Cloud and the Sioux Problem
; and Larson,
Red Cloud: Warrior-States man of the Lakota Sioux.

13
.
Ítokheca wi ‘changing moon.’

14
.
Šahíyela ‘Cheyennes’; a common folk etymology is “Red Talkers,” implying unintelligible speech
.

15
.
‘Blue Clouds.’

16
.
For Black Elk’s list of names for the phases of the moon,
see
Sixth Grandfather
, 292
.

17
.
Hóka hé! “Come on! Charged!”

18
.
Lakota parents induced good behavior in their children by portraying the whites as bogey men. George Bushotter, a Lakota, described in his autobiography, written in 1887, how, when he misbehaved, his mother’s threat to call in a white man to punish him was a terrifying and immediate deterrent (Bushotter, “Lakota Texts,” no. 101; also see Erikson, “Observations on Sioux Education,” 141)
.

19
.
The pony drag is a travois, made of two lodge poles tied together where they cross over a horse’s withers, the ends dragging on the ground and supporting a platform of cross pieces that served to transport baggage. See Handbook
of North American Indians, vol. 13, Plains, 7, 606.

20
.
Snowblindness, caused by sunlight reflecting off the Snow-covered landscape, was such a problem for the Lakotas that they named March “the Moon of the Snowblind.” Dragonflies represented the powers of the West; they were messengers (akíchita) of the Thunder-birds (
) (see Walker, “Sun Dance,” 68, 84). As a symbol they were frequently associated with warfare since, like dragonflies, warriors needed to be fast and agile in battle
.

21
.
Lakota boys’ games are extensively documented; see Culin
, Games of the North American Indians; Dorsey, “Games of Teton Dakota Children”;
Meeker, “Oglala Games”; Walker, “Sioux Games”; Bucko, “When Does a Cactus Become an Angry Buffalo? Traditional Games of the Lakotas.”