Black Elk Speaks (50 page)

2
. In August 1876 the army took over temporary control of the Sioux agencies. Soon after the chiefs signed the Black Hills cession agreement, the army confiscated the Lakotas’ guns and horses and forced them to move their camps to the agencies where they could be closely watched. See Hyde
, Red Cloud’s Folk,
284–85; Olson
, Red Cloud and the Sioux Problem,
231–33
.

3
. After confiscating the horses belonging to the Oglalas, Gen. Crook called the men to a meeting at Fort Robinson for the purpose of announcing that he had deposed Red Cloud as head chief and now recognized Spotted Tail as chief of all the Lakotas at both Red Cloud and Spotted Tail Agencies. See Hyde
, Red Cloud’s Folk,
285–86; Olson
, Red Cloud and the Sioux Problem,
233–34
.

4
. For detailed discussion of Crazy Horse’s refusal to visit Washington, see Bray
, Crazy Horse,
322–35. The quotation from Crazy Horse is not found in the transcript
.

5
. This account of Crazy Horse’s burial closely follows the interview; transcript, except that Black Elk did not mention the accusation that the body had been cut in half. See
Sixth Grandfather,
204
.

6
. This sentence is one of the most frequently quoted in the entire book. The sentiment expressed is apparently Neihardt’s; it does not appear in the interview transcript
.

1
. The first two paragraphs of this chapter present material that is not found in the transcript. In 1877 Congress insisted that the Oglalas and Brules be moved to the Missouri River; rfthey refused, they would receive no rations. A delegation of chiefs visited Washington in September 1877 and received President Hayes’s promise that if they agreed to spend the winter on the Missouri, in the spring they could choose new agency sites within the Great Sioux Reservation. Although Crazy Horse’s old band, now led by Big Road, started to make the move, they eventually broke away and headed north. After spending some time on Powder River they continued north and joined Sitting Bull in Canada. See Hyde
, Red Cloud’s Folk,
299–300; Olson
, Red Cloud and the Sioux Problem,
247–56; McCrady
, Living with Strangers,
73–75
. 

2
. White Mud or Frenchman River
.

3
. Wood Mountain, in present Saskatchewan, a trading center for the Red River Métis. See McCrady
, Living with Strangers,
76–102. Vestal
, Sitting Bull: Champion of the Sioux,
210, reports that Sitting Bull also held a Sun Dance there the previous summer, 1877
.

4
. Lakota men had a duty to support the widows of brothers and cousins; they were potential spouses. See Hassrick
, The Sioux,
120–21
.

5
. For Lakota mourning customs, see Hassrick
, The Sioux,
295–96; and Tyon Walker
, Lakota Belief and Ritual,
163–64
.

6
. Hahó! Hahó! “Thanks!”, an exclamation of gratitude or joy
.

7
. This paragraph is Neihardt’s. In the transcript, Black Elk merelysays, “We started back to the U. S. because we were tired of being in Canada”
(Sixth Grandfather,
210
).

1
. The Blackfeet (Piegan) of Montana, an Algonquian-speaking people who were enemies of the Lakotas. They are not related to the Blackfeet Sioux. See McCrady
, Living with Strangers,
91, for discussion of relations between the Lakotas and Blackfeet during this period
.

2
. The group with which Black Elk and his family traveled arrived at Fort Keogh in June 1880. There they surrendered to the army and were placed in the prisoner of war camp. See
Sixth Grandfather,
212–13
.

3
. In visions, spirit-beings offered individuals powers that could be used for personal success as well as for the good of the people. Before he or she could activate those powers it was necessary to enact the vision ceremonially as a public testimony of the dream experience. A person who ignored the vision risked death by being struck by lightning. Hence Black Elk’s fear of thunder storms. See Densmore
, Teton Sioux Music,
157
.

4
. In the transcript, the song of the daybreak star differs in tense: “In a sacred manner I am walking / Thy nation has beheld me”
(Sixth Grandfather,
213). This seems to refer back to the version, while Neihardt’s version looks forward to the Horse Dance
.

5
. According to the transcript, this is an exclamation “meaning that they were charging”
(Sixth Grandfather,
214
).

1
. Sage
(Artemisia),
called
‘
gray grass’ in Lakota, was extensively used in rituals. Black Elk explained that sage, because it is the most fragrant of plants, was used as medicine and was burned ritually, using the smoke to purify persons and things
(Sixth Grandfather,
216–17). Its odor was said to drive away evil spirits. See Walker
, Lakota Belief and Ritual,
77
.

2
.
‘
two-legged nation’ here clearly refers to humans; in ritual language, it may also refer to bears. See Walker
, Lakota Belief and Ritual,
94,140. In the transcript, rather than “make holy,” the penultimate line reads, “I will make over,” i.e., heal
(Sixth Grandfather,
216). “Paint the earth on me” refers to painting the participants with makhá (‘earth; clay’) paints
.

3
. Black Elk mentioned that his forearms were also painted black
(Sixth Grandfather,
217
).

4
. According to the transcript, all of the riders, including Black Elk, wore black masks; they each wore two fathers in the hair, “like horns”
(Sixth Grandfather,
216
).
See Standing Bear’s drawing, which depicts the mask and shows curved feathers, probably eagle pinion feathers. In the drawings, however, only one of the riders—presumably Black Elk—wears a mask
.

5
. The transcript starts with the north: “To the north the horse nation is dancing, They are coming to behold them. (This song was repeated to the different sides.)”
(Sixth Grandfather,
218
).

6
. Referring to the bay horse that Black Elk rides

7
. The song as given in that transcript is simpler: “Grandfathers, behold me. / What you have said unto me, I have thus performed. / Hear me” (
Sixth Grandfather,
221)
.

8
. The swallows come as akíchita of the Thunder-beings
.

9
. The word “relic” designates a symbolic ornament, generally of rawhide, a bird skin or feathers, or cloth
.

10
. Small bundles of
or tobacco wrapped in red cloth, a traditional offering in ritual contexts
.

11
. In rituals, as in war, men rushed on the “enemy” and counted coup. Compare, for example, counting coup on the sacred tree before it was cut down and on the spot where it would stand in the Sun Dance enclosure
.

12
. Black Elk’s wording was more definitive: “The spirit horses had been dancing around the circle of the tipi” (
Sixth Grandfather,
224)
.

1
. General Miles
.

2
. This sentence is Neihardt’s
.

3
. Despite promises of compensation for the loss of their herds, it was not until 1928 that Congress authorized a general investigation of the pony claims. That legislation stipulated that the claimants must not have been “members of any band of Indians engaged in hostilities against the United States atthe time the losses occurred.” Of the thousands of claims filed, few were ever paid. See Mario Gonzalez and Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
, The Politics of Hallowed Ground,
395
.

4
. In May and June 1881, the Lakota prisoners of ware—2,766 individuals—were sent by steamboat down the Missouri to Fort Yates, at Standing Rock Agency. Those, like Black Elk, who belonged at other agencies were allowed to return to their own people. See DeMallie, “The Sioux in Dakota and Montana Territories,” 54
.

5
.
plums month,’an alternate name for September
.

6
. The transcript has “other world” (
Sixth Grandfather,
227
).

7
. The Oglalas call the Pine Ridge Agency owákpamni ‘distribution place,’ indicating that it was the place from which goods were distributed to the people. In preparing that transcription of her stenographic notes, Enid Neihardt inadvertently wrote “disputed” instead of “distributed,” and Neihardt himself perpetuated the error
.
^*

8
. In this paragraph and the next one Neihardt uses his own wording to express his understanding of Black Elk’s perspective at this time. However, in the transcript, Black Elk does not characterize his nation as “dying.” He told Neihardt that in spring 1882 he had a brief vision in which he again saw that two men, the akíchita of the Thunder beings: “They said nothing but I knew that they wanted me to perform that duty”
(Sixth Grandfather,
227)
.

9
. The vision quest is called
‘crying for a dream.’ For Black Elk’s detailed account of the ritual, see Brown, The Sacred Pipe, 44–66.