41 pages • 1 hour read
John NeihardtBlack Elk Speaks
John NeihardtNonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1932A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Differences Between Lakota and American Societies
Throughout the book, Black Elk often comments on the stark cultural differences between the Lakota and American societies. Black Elk is often shocked by American cultural norms and societal values, and he portrays America as a society driven by individualism, disconnected from the natural world.
Much of the conflict between the Lakota and Wasichu (the Lakota term for white people) revolves around gold located in the Black Hills mountains on Lakota territory. As gold is highly valuable in American and European societies, the Wasichus are eager to find a way to mine the Black Hills. Though they initially seek a deal to build a road on the Lakota territory, they resort to fighting when the Lakota refuse to allow them to build. For Black Elk, the Wasichus desire for gold is senseless: “[T]he Wasichus had found much of the yellow metal that they worship and that makes them crazy” (7). Black Elk notes that the Lakota were also aware of the gold, “but they did not bother with it, because it was not good for anything” (60). To the Lakota, gold is a useless material, and as such, they can only understand the Wasichus actions as driven by a religious fervor.
When Black Elk is an adult, and the Wasichus have largely forced the Lakota to surrender their land, he decides to join a Native American show and travel to New York in hopes of better understanding their society. Black Elk is shocked by city life and how disconnected from the natural land it is: “[T]here were bright lights at night, so that you could not see the stars […]” (167). Whereas the Lakota live freely on the land, Black Elk notes that the Wasichus “penned up” everything, even the “grass” in the form of parks (167). Black Elk concludes that such a society has “forgotten that the earth was their mother” (167). In Black Elk’s view, such an unnatural style of living leads to a society driven by greed: “[T]hey would take everything from each other if they could” (167). Black Elk grows deeply saddened by his visit to New York, as he realizes that the Wasichus intend to force the Lakota to live in a similar “penned up” way (167).
Necessity of Following One’s Duty
The narrative of the book charts Black Elk’s growth from a boy to a young adult. A key theme explored through Black Elk’s character is that of his journey to discover his sense of purpose in life: to help the Lakota people recover their former strength and power. The book presents such a journey as a long and difficult one, rife with moments of crisis and uncertainty.
Black Elk first gains a sense of a life duty through his “great vision” that he has when he is nine years old (47). During the vision, Black Elk is given powers by the six Lakota Grandfather spirits and is shown several images relating to the life of his people. Later in life, Black Elk comes to understand that the vision represents his duty to help the Lakota people regain their land, symbolized through the need to “bring the sacred hoop together and make the tree to bloom again at the center of it” (165). However, in the immediate aftermath of the vision, Black Elk is unsure what to make of it. Whenever Black Elk “would try to make words for the meaning, it would be like fog and get away from me” (37). As a result of his uncertainty, Black Elk chooses to keep the vision a secret for many years.
Though Black Elk attempts to repress his vision, it resurfaces throughout his life as a momentary “queer feeling,” sometimes followed by brief hallucinations (113). When Black Elk is 17, these visions begin occurring more frequently, and Black Elk often sees animals or thunderclouds calling out to him that it is “time” to follow his Grandfathers’ task. However, Black Elk feels unsure what exactly he is meant to do: “Time to do what? I did not know” (121). Black Elk’s uncertainty develops into an intense fear that keeps Black Elk from functioning normally. Ultimately, Black Elk is approached by a medicine man, and he is “so afraid of being afraid of everything that I told him about my vision” (123). The medicine man helps Black Elk understand that his vision represents Black Elk’s “duty,” which he must accomplish by performing his vision in a public ceremony (123). By embracing his life duty, Black Elk’s fear dissipates, and he grows determined to help his people in any way possible. Black Elk notes, however, that continuing to hide from his destiny might have resulted in a negative outcome: “But the fear came, and if I had not obeyed it, I am sure it would have killed me in a little while” (157).
Lakota’s Respect for Nature
Throughout the book, a recurring theme is of the Lakota’s unique views on their surrounding natural world. The Lakota treat the natural world as one large, interconnected community, with humans only playing a small role, equal to that of all other animals. This understanding of nature impacts all aspects of Lakota society, influencing everything from their religious beliefs to their daily activities.
The theme of nature is foregrounded in the first chapter of the book, during which Black Elk invites Neihardt to smoke a sacred pipe together. As Black Elk begins telling his history, he emphasizes that the story is only worth telling as it provides insight into the workings of the entire world:
It is the story of all life that is holy and is good to tell, and of us two-leggeds sharing in it with the four-leggeds and the wings of the air and all green things; for these are children of one mother and their father is one spirit (1).
In Black Elk’s view, it is impossible to tell a story about a human’s life without also describing the lives of all animals and plants. Rather than draw a distinction between humans and other animals, Black Elk emphasizes their similarities by calling humans “two-leggeds” and other creatures “four-leggeds.” For Lakota, all of Earth’s creatures are considered to be kin with one another, as they all descend from the same mother and father.
This emphasis on the oneness of nature is continually evinced in the book's numerous visions and spiritual ceremonies, where creatures always play a central role. Several animal spirits are at the core of Black Elk’s boyhood vision, with Black Elk being carried by horse spirits to the “center of the world” (46). During his later horse dance ceremony, Black Elk will describe the Lakota as being a “horse nation” (127). During his boyhood vision, Black Elk sees a red-painted man transform into a bison, and then sees a “sacred herb” grow where the bison had been sitting (30). Black Elk explains that the image represents “that the bison were the gift of a good spirit,” and that the bison are the source of the Lakota’s “strength” (30). Throughout his religious experiences, Black Elk emphasizes how the Lakota are deeply connected with animals and the natural world, without whom the Lakota would be unable to survive.
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