Black Elk Speaks (54 page)

4
.
The phrase “lean to hear my feeble voice” is Neihardt’s. The transcript has, “I thus will send up a voice
” (Sixth Grandfather, 295).

5
.
The phrase, “when I was still young and could hope” is also Neihardt’s
.

6
.
In Lakota prayer, “despair” is a ritual expression of the supplicant’s helplessness before the overwhelming power of the spirits. When a man says, in prayer, “I am in despair,” one way of expressing it is matákunišni ‘I am nothing.’ For an example, see Curtis
, North American Indian, vol. 3,72,151.

7
.
Neihardt systematized mention of the gifts from the four directions. In the transcript, Black Elk begins with the north and the gift of wind, next the west and the cup of water, and then the south and the sacred hoop, omitting the east, apparently accidently
(Sixth Grandfather, 295).

8
. “
A pitiful old man” is Neihardt’s phrase; in this prayer, Black Elk does not refer to his age
.

9
.
For Black Elk, the trip to Harney Peak, where he had seen himself in his childhood vision, and the validation in the form of rain that the Six Grandfathers still heard him, offered hope for reviving the tree that never bloomed. Together, Black Elk and his son Benjamin, with Neihardt and his daughters Enid and Hilda, represented continuity with generations yet to come, both Lakotas and whites. In the transcript, the final words of the prayer are: “Grandfathers, behold this pipe. In behalf of my children and also my nephews [Neihardt’s] children, I offer this pipe, that we may see many happy days”
(Sixth Grandfather, 296).

*
The act of striking an enemy, dead or alive, with a stick conferred distinction, the first coup naturally counting most.

^*
It is so indeed.
⁶

*
Rustling tree, cottonwood.
⁸

*
Little Bighorn.

‡ June 17,1876.

^*
This was Reno’s detachment attacking from the southern end of the village.

^*
Probably Captain French.
⁸

^*
Custer had attacked the camp at the northern end about four miles away.

^*
He saw Reno advancing to the attack about four miles away.

^*
Evidently Custer’s detachment, coming to attack at the northern end of the village.

†
Custer’s.

†
A detachment of Reno’s command had set out to help Custer, and the rest of the command followed. They were driven back to the hill to which they had retreated after the disastrous fight in the valley at the southern end of the village.
¹³

^*
The Rees were enemies of the Sioux and Custer had Ree scouts with him.
¹²

^*
 General Terry was coming up river to the scene of the battle from the mouth of the Little Bighorn.

^*
Custer’s.

^*
Custer.
²⁴

^*
Steamboat.
⁶

^*
The Battle of Slim Buttes, September 9,1876.
¹¹

†
Left the war-path.
¹⁴

‡
The treaty was signed in October, 1876.
¹⁵

^*
Colonel Mackenzie attacked the Cheyenne village as stated on November 26,1876.
¹⁷

^*
General Miles attacked the village of Crazy Horse on the Tongue River, January 8,1877.
²³

^*
Black Elk’s log cabin is situated about two miles west of Manderson Post Office, Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota.

^*
Canada.

^*
December, 1881.

*Black Elk’s home near Manderson P. O., South Dakota.

^*
Long Hair, Buffalo Bill.
⁶

‡
New York.

*
Omaha.

†
Chicago.

§
Madison Square Garden.
⁹

^*
General Crook headed the commission that arranged the treaty of 1889.

^*
Mason Valley, Nevada.
⁵

^†
“One Who Makes Live.”
⁶

^*
This was Father Craft.
¹²

†
Cuny Table, a high plateau in the midst of the Badlands.
¹³

*
He was very ill with pneumonia.

^*
Signifying assent.
⁴

^*
Sheltering place, an elevated plateau in the Badlands, with precipitous sides, and inaccessible save by one narrow neck of land easily defended.
⁹

^*
A “make-live,” savior.

*
Joint Collection, Western Historical Manuscript Collection, University of Missouri, Columbia, and State Historical Society of Missouri Manuscripts

1
. There is no indication that Black Elk ever made a pictographic record of the Ghost Dance. Perhaps the reference here is to Black Elk advising Standing Bear on the content of the pictures he drew for Neihardt, which are reproduced in this volume.

1
. Throughout this essay I use
“SG”
to designate
The Sixth Grandfather
and
“BES”
for
Black Elk Speaks
.

10
. Black Elk’s Story:
Distinguishing Its Lakota Purpose
, 14.

11
. “Foreword,” xiii, xvi.

12
. Assuming that Black Elk was born, as he said, in 1863, he was just turning forty-one when he was baptized in the Catholic Church on December 6,1904, the feast of St. Nicholas, whose name he was given
(SG,
14).

13
. Also see Born, “Black Elk and the Duhamel Sioux Indian Pageant.”

2
. The poem appears in Neihardt’s
Collected Works
, 164. See House,
John G. Neihardt: Man and Poet
, 29–32, 63–64;
Aly, John G. Neihardt: A Critical Biography
, 14, 50.

3
. For an extensive, well-annotated bibliography of publications relating to
Black Elk Speaks
up to 2000, see Holloway,
Interpreting the Legacy: John Neihardt and Black Elk Speaks
, 197–212.

4
. Aly, John G.
Neihardt
, 172.

5
. McCluskey, “Black Elk Speaks, and So Does John Neihardt.”

6
. Castro,
Interpreting the Indian
, 90.

7
. See, for example, Steinmetz,
Pipe, Bible, and Peyote
, 179–82

8
. Mails, Fools
Crow
, 45.

9
. “When Black Elk Speaks, Everybody Listens,” 148.