Black Elk Analysis

Most Americans have at least some vague image of the Trail of Tears, but not very many know of the events that led to that tragic removal of several thousand Indians from their homeland. Indian lands were held hostage by the states and the federal government, and Indians had to agree to removal to preserve their identity as tribes. Trail of Tears is an excellent snapshot of a particular situation and will be eye opening to those who are not familiar with the story of the southern tribes and their interactions with the burgeoning American population. The Trail of Tears has become the symbol in American history that signifies the callousness of American policy makers toward American Indians in 1839 and 1839.

Document C Chief Luther Standing Bear, My People, the Sioux Source: Chief Luther Standing Bear, My People, the Sioux (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1929). “It did not occur to me at the time that I was going away to learn the ways of the white man. My idea was that I was leaving the reservation and going to stay away long enough to do some brave deed, and then come home again alive. If I could just do that, then I knew my father would be so proud of me.” 1. What does this statement infer about what the Native Americans felt was occurring?

The Battle of Little Bighorn and the Massacre at Wounded Knee were both significant and terrible events that took place in American history during the 1800’s. These two eyewitness documents provide information and details about two important Indian battles against American troops. These events occurred 14 years apart but both were the result of the Sioux Indians being unsatisfied with their freedom taken from them.

The Lakota, an Indian group of the Great Plains, established their community in the Black Hills in the late eighteenth century (9). This group is an example of an Indian community that got severely oppressed through imperialistic American actions and policy, as the Americans failed to recognize the Lakota’s sovereignty and ownership of the Black Hills. Jeffrey Ostler, author of The Lakotas and the Black Hills: The Struggle for Sacred Ground, shows that the Lakota exemplified the trends and subsequent challenges that Indians faced in America. These challenges included the plurality of groups, a shared colonial experience, dynamic change, external structural forces, and historical agency.

At the beginning of Black Elk Speaks, Black Elk and John Neihardt smoke the peace pipe then Black Elk begins his story. When Black Elk was still pretty young he and his tribe were involved in the Hundred slain war, and Black Elk also begins to hear strange voices. Later on Black Elk falls very ill, then two warriors come from the sky and bring Black Elk to the Flaming rainbow tepee, while he was there his six grandfathers gave him six very special gifts. After Black Elk got the gifts he was taught the horse dance, when Black Elk returned from his vision he went to see his cousin Crazy horse, later on Crazy Horse would be murdered by being stabbed in the back by a soldier. By this time most of the indians were forced to live on the reservations but one band of Lakotas escaped from the reservation and traveled north to Canada where Sitting Bull’s band was. The winters in Canada were too harsh for the Sioux so they reluctantly moved back to the reservation where they were given hardly anything. With Black Elk’s people losing hope he teaches them the dances he learned in his visions. When Black Elk learns of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show he decides to go with him, after a few months doing shows in America Black Elk went to England. When the Lakotas were camped on Wounded Knee Creek, the wasichus came and murdered everyone in the camp including the women and children. After the battle the remaining Lakota surrendered they went to the reservation and the flowering tree dies. The

     Greed is a large part of the American culture whether we realize it as a society or not. Many countries around the world view the United States as a selfish country that does what it wants on a global scale, and does not share or allocate its predominate wealth. I am very thankful and proud to be a citizen of this country. Even though I would risk my life to protect our country and its freedom, there are aspects about our civilization that I wish could be different. Black Elk, “a holy man and a warrior of the Lakota Nation Indians,” was a member of the Oglala Sioux tribe during the most horrific period for Native Americans in the Western part of the United States. In excerpts from the novel of his life story

Black Elk seemed disgusted by the behavior of the United States government. Black Elk had lived through the government’s unlawful slaughter of Chief Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. He had seen the Battle of Little Bighorn where an attempt was made to forcibly take their sacred land. Black Elk had witnessed the massacre of men, women, and children at the Battle of Wounded Knee. Black Elk went as far to say that “I did not know then how much was ended….I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream.” Black Elk experienced the true injustices done by the government, and lived long enough to see their negative impact (“Black Elk”).

The division in the world among the races always was and will be one of the

     Above the camp flew the flag of the United States and below et was the

The book “Lakota Woman,” is an autobiography that depicts Mary Crow Dog and Indians’ Lives. Because I only had a limited knowledge on Indians, the book was full of surprising incidents. Moreover, she starts out her story by describing how her Indian friends died in miserable and unjustifiable ways. After reading first few pages, I was able to tell that Indians were mistreated in the same manners as African-Americans by whites. The only facts that make it look worse are, Indians got their land stolen and prejudice and inequality for them still exists.

Andrew Jackson’s impact on America had both negative impacts and positive impacts. For negative impacts, he was a man slaughterer of native Indian tribes and treated them unfairly. He caused a problem when he initiated the nullification crisis and force act. For positive impacts, he destroyed the national bank. He did both bad things and good things, and to understand all of them is important.

Some key images and symbols of Black’s Elk’s vision: bay horse moving in circular movements in all four directions. There was twelve horses in each direction. All horses on the north were all in white, to ones on the east were sorrel, the horses on the south were all buckskin color

After what I had seen over there, I wanted revenge. I wanted to kill” (214). When the war party went out, even Black Elk lost control, and instead of focusing on trying to help his people, he went out and focused on killing those that had harmed his people. He forgot about his vision, and the grandfathers and focused his attention on the wasichus. The fact that even Black Elk, the man who was given powers to heal and who was shown the fate of his people shows that the tribe had indeed lost control. Black Elk was shown what would happen to his people, and yet he had forgotten and went out for blood. “We wanted a much bigger war-party so that we could meet the soldiers and get revenge. But this was hard, because the people were not all of the same mind, and they were hungry and cold.” (217) Although a majority of the tribe wanted to go and get revenge, there were still those who were unsure, cold, hungry, and tired. The whole tribe did not want to go out and fight like they had in the past, and the warriors lost the support of their people to the harsh winter and gnawing hunger, that clawed the bellies of everyone in the tribe. Both Black Elk and everyone in the tribe had lost their support for each other, and lost sight of trying to stay together, and trying to stay alive for as long as the vision would allow. That was when the Sioux lost control of their fate. When they were forced to lower their weapons not only by Red Cloud’s demand,

History has had an inarguable and behemoth impact on the trajectory of art and literature that it surrounds. Quite often, these mediums are a mere reflection of the artist's or author’s existence, and can be viewed as heavily autobiographical, regardless if the artist acknowledges this or not. In fact, many artists and authors will deny that their work is influenced by outside events, and wish to attest that their productions are sporadically born out of the creative abyss of their minds. However, this is absolutely false, since that mind is undoubtedly affected by external stimuli. Consequently, it is an undeniable premise that history changes the course of literature.

In novel Saga of The Sioux, there are two major conflicts. These two conflicts are Man vs. Society, and Man vs. Nature. “For two or three more hours, the warriors harassed the soldiers by creeping down gullies and suddenly opening fire at close range,” this quote is an example of how the natives fought the bluecoats. “When the 20th century began, the United States government was well along the road to ‘reforming’ the indian nations,” it shows how they were always battling and wanting the bluecoats out of their land. Americans wanted the indians to leave their sacred land, so they could have it for themselves; the Natives had to involuntary assimilate into white culture. “We are only little herds of buffalo left scattered; the great herds that once covered the prairies are no more,” this quote from the novel is talking about how the lost all of their buffalos. They may have lost them from settlers coming in or bad weather. It is more than likely because of settlers coming in.