Black Elk Speaks (53 page)

12
. Red and white are the two colors of the Messiah’s sacred paints.

13
. In the transcript, Black Elk does not mention the possibility that the Messiah messiah be the red man of his great vision
.

1
. White Clay Creek
.

2
. Daniel F. Royer, who had no previous experience with Indian affairs, was appointed agent at Pine Ridge early in October 1890. See Mooney
, The Ghost-Dance Religion,
848; Olson
, Red Cloud and the Sioux Problem, 325.

3
. The first four paragraphs of this chapter are Neihardt’s. The Lakota expression
síca ‘bad heart’ means “angry
.”

4
. The image of a cloud tepee below the rainbow seems to be an error since the flaming rainbow in Black Elk’s great vision served as the doorway to the tepee. The transcript simply reads, “On either side of this rainbow was a cloud”
(Sixth Grandfather, 265).

5
. The last two sentences are Neihardt’s
.

6
. Short Bull led the Brule Ghost Dancers to Pine Ridge Reservation, probably about the beginning of October, 1890. In a talk recorded by a newspaper reporter, he told his followers that the sacred tree was sprouting at Pass Creek, on Pine Ridge, and that they should go there to dance and meet their deceased relatives, who were about to return. See Mooney
, The Ghost-Dance Religion,
788,849
.

7
. Responding to Agent Royer’s urgent pleas for military protection, President Benjamin Harrison decided on November 13,1890, to authorize the secretary of war to take necessary action to prevent an Indian outbreak. Acting under orders from Gen. Miles, troops commanded by Gen. JohnR. Brooke began to arrive at Pine Ridge on November 19 (Mooney
, The Ghost-Dance Religion,
850)
.

8
. Little Wound, the Oglala chief “Red Wound” is an error in the original shorthand transcription
.

9
. The last two sentences are Neihardt’s
.

10
. On November 8, 1890, Agent Royer called a council of the chiefs in a vain attempt to convince them to give up the Ghost Dance. See Olson
, Red Cloud and the Sioux Problem,
325. Historical records do not mention a promise to the Oglalas that they could perform the Ghost Dance three days a month
.

11
. On November 25, 1890, Agent Rouer recommended the arrest of 66 Ghost Dance leaders on Pine Ridge Reservation, including Black Elk and Good Thunder. See
Sixth Grandfather,
268n. 16
.

12
.
‘black robe’ is the Lakota designation for Roman Catholicpriests. Bundled in an army overcoat and cap, Father Francis M. Craft was mistaken for a soldier and stabbed by a Lakota during the Wounded Knee fight. See Mooney
, The Ghost-Dance Religion,
872; Utley, Last Days of the Sioux Nation, 215. Father Craft’s own account is in Foley
, Father Francis M. Craft,
90–91. The last sentence of this paragraph is Neihardt’s
.

13
. The Oglalas and Brules began to gather in the Badlands in late November 1890, as troops arrived at Pine Ridge (Mooney, The Ghost-Dance Religion, 850).

14
. In the transcript, Black Elk explains that it was the Brule akíchita, acting as camp police, who tried to prevent the Oglalas from leaving for Pine Ridge (
Sixth Grandfather,
269)
.

15
. On December 16, some one thousand Lakotas under Two Strike and Crow Dog left the Badlands for Pine Ridge and went to the agency. By December 29, Kicking Bear and Short’s Bull’s people were also moving toward the agency. All the Lakotas had left the Badlands. See Mooney
, The Ghost-Dance Religion,
861,867–68
.

16
. Neihardt authored this paragraph; in the transcript, Black Elk does not mention Sitting Bull’s death. See Utley
, The Lance and the Shield,
296–305
.

17
. Big Foot and his band of some three hundred Minneconjous fled from Cheyenne River Reservation on December 23, heading for Pine Ridge. They surrendered to Maj. Samuel M. Whitside and a detachment of the Seventh Cavalry on December 28, and together the Lakotas and the soldiers camped for the night at the village of Wounded Knee, about eighteen miles east of Pine Ridge Agency. There they were joined by the regimental commander, Col. James W. Forsyth, and the remainder of the Seventh Cavalry who arrived from Pine Ridge Agency. Combined, the force numbered about five hundred men. See Mooney
, The Ghost-Dance Religion,
865-67; Utley
, Last Days of the Sioux Nation,
197-202
.

18
. The trading post at Wounded Knee. The post office there was named Brennan in honor of John R. Brennan, who served as the Pine Ridge Indian agent from 1900 to 1917; in 1932 the post office was renamed Wounded Knee (Jensen
, The Settler and Soldier Interviews of Eli S. Ricker,
81; Riegert
, Quest for the Pipe of the Sioux,
34)
.

1
.
The Seventh Cavalry had four Hotch kiss guns, which were placed on the hill west of the Wounded Knee post office and store and over looking the Indians’ camp
.

2
. The transcript has “sacred red stick” rather than “bow”; later, however, Black Elk says "I had the sacred bow with me”
(Sixth Grandfather,
272, 274)
.

3
. The transcript has, “they have murdered them!”
(Sixth Grandfather,
272)
.

4
. Neihardt provided the description of the dead and wounded, and of seeing a baby suckling at his dead mother’s breast
.

5
. According to the transcript, the boys were actually about fifteen years old (
Sixth Grandfather,
274)
.

6
. The dead were buried in a common grave on the hill where the Hotchkiss guns had been. In 1903, Joseph Horn Cloud, a survivor of the battle, organized the effort to erect on the grave site a granite monument, which still stands today
.

7
. The transcript states that Yellow Bird shot the officer, but it does not say that he killed him
.

8
. The literature on Wounded Knee is extensiue. The foundational account is in Mooney
, The Ghost-Dance Religion,
843-86. The photographic record is presented and analyzed in Jensen, Paul, and Carter
, Eyewitness at Wounded Knee.
Valuable historical works include Utley
, Last Days of the Sioux Nation,
200-30; and Ostler
, The Plains Sioux and U. S. Colonialism,
338-60. Eyewitness Lakota accounts include Jensen
, The Indian Interviews of Eli S. Ricker,
189-172; McGregor
, The Wounded Knee Massacre,
103-40; Beard in Walker
, Lakota Society,
157-68; non-Indian eyewitness accounts are in Jensen
, The Settler and Soldier Interviews of Eli S. Ricker,
1-62. Details of the encounter vary widely and none are in complete agreement with Black Elk’s account
.

9
. The last sentence is Neihardt’s
.

1
. The sound of the Hotchkiss guns firing at Wounded Knee was, heard at Pine Ridge Agency and soon survivors began to arrive with reports of the slaughter. Led by Two Strike, a group of warriors attacked the agency, which was defended by the Indian police. Most of the Lakotas at the agency fled northwest, down White Clay Creek, taking Red Cloud with them, apparently against the elderly chiefs wishes. On the way they met Short Bull and Kicking Bear’s people who were returning to the agency. They joined together-numbering some four thousand people-and camped near the site of No Water’s village, fifteen miles north of the agency. See Utley, The Last Days of the Sioux Nation, 251, and Mooney
, The Ghost-Dance Religion,
873
.

2
. White Clay Creek
.

3
. The fight at Drexel (Holy Rosary) Mission, about four miles north of Pine Ridge Agency, took place on December 30,1890. See Utley, The Last Days of the Sioux Nation, 237–40, and Mooney
, The Ghost-Dance Religion,
875
.

4
.
Hau! ‘yes!’

5
. Neihardt provided the meaning of Black Elk’s covering himself with dirt; it is not in the transcript. See
Sixth Grandfather,
277
.

6
. The transcript has, simply, “No, nephew” (
Sixth Grandfather,
278). “Young nephew” is not a usual form of address in Lakota
.

7
. The Ninth Cavalry (African-American), commanded by Maj. Guy V. Henry (
Utley, Last Days of the Sioux Nation,
239)
.

8
. The transcript reads, “The priests and sisters were all over there [at Drexel Mission] praying” (
Sixth Grandfather, 278
). Fathers Craft and John Jutz, S. J., missionaries at Pine Ridge, were present at the battle; the five Franciscan sisters at the mission were not, but all cared for the wounded and refugees from Wounded Knee. SeeMooney
, The Ghost-Dance Religion,
872- 74
.

9
.
‘refuge.’

10
. This fight with the Sixth Cavalry took place on January 1, 1891. See Utley, Last Days of the Sioux Nation, 253.

11
. While the reservation was being occupied by the army, Young Man Afraid of His Horses, the leading chief at Pine Ridge, had been visiting the Crow Reservation in Montana. General Miles sent for him and had him return by railroad from Wyoming. Hearrived back at Pine Ridge on January 7 or 8 and Miles immediately sent the chief to the Stronghold to negotiate for the Lakotas’surrender. Red Cloud himself had left the Badlands on January 7 to return to the agency. See Utley
, Last Days of the Sioux Nation,
258
.

12
. The Lakotas from the Stronghold arrived at Pine Ridge Agency on January 15, 1891, and surrendered the following day. They pitched their camp of 742 tepees along White Clay Creek, just west of the agency. See Mooney
, The Ghost-Dance Religion,
887–88
.

13
. The last two paragraphs are Neihardt’s summary
.

1
.
At this time, Black Elk said to Neihardt, “Some how the spirits have made you come to revive the tree that never bloomed.” See
Sixth Grandfather, 44–45.

2
.
In the transcript, Black Elk says, “I will send the voices to the six grandfathers” (Sixth Grandfather, 294)
.

3
.
Stepping behind a rock, Black Elk removed his white man’s clothes and put on a black or dark blue breech cloth edged in green, which he wore over red long underwear—a substitute for red body paint—that Lakotas of the time wore in dances. On his feet he wore high, patterned stockings and fully beaded moccasins that he had gotten from the trader in Manderson. He wore a headdress of buffalo hide with the hair left on, a single tail feather from an immature golden eagle fixed transversely at the front and several others hanging down from the back, each feather tipped with plumes dyed pink. In his left hand he carried a pipe with a T-shaped catlinite bowl and a long stemfrom which colored ribbons hung, symbolizing the four directions, and a single eagle tail feather, symbolizing
(Sixth Grandfather, 48).