How Does Black Elk Speak

Black Elk was a holy man of the Oglala band of the Lakota Sioux nation. Black Elk interpreted his life as a holy man as "the story of a mighty vision" (BES, p. 2). As a child, Black Elk was blessed with a great vision from the other world. In receiving his great vision, Black Elk received a great power, a "power to make over" (BES, p. 201), a power to make things better for sick and suffering individuals and nations. He did not know it at the time, but this vision would be the blueprint of his life. It would guide him through times when he doubted his importance to his people. He had other visions, but they all tied into the great vision he experienced as a child. Black Elk made incredible

In American Indian Stories, University of Nebraska Press Lincoln and London edition, the author, Zitkala-Sa, tries to tell stories that depicted life growing up on a reservation. Her stories showed how Native Americans reacted to the white man’s ways of running the land and changing the life of Indians. “Zitkala-Sa was one of the early Indian writers to record tribal legends and tales from oral tradition” (back cover) is a great way to show that the author’s stories were based upon actual events in her life as a Dakota Sioux Indian. This essay will describe and analyze Native American life as described by Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories, it will relate to Native Americans and their interactions with American societies, it will

For the purpose of this project, our group has decided to focus on Native American culture and their non-verbal communication patterns. We chose to focus on Native American culture due to their unique methods of communication. What makes this culture so distinct is the way in which they encompass their values into their communication methods. Their communication methods are unlike most cultures and are even utilized within Western culture in modern day.

Storytelling continues to be an integral part of Native American culture, providing us with an understanding of what was important to the Native Americans. Through their stories, Native Americans expressed an understanding of the environment, and the relationship that existed between themselves and their environment. These stories also provide us with a look at Native American legends, history, and a collection of knowledge critical to their survival. Native American stories are deeply rooted in their relationship with Mother Earth. Their many years connected with land, life, water and sky has created many stories explaining these important bonds with Mother Earth. From ancient times the Native Americans have looked to their

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

     Traditionally, Native American Literature has been an oral genre. Although Native American Literature was the first American literature created, it has been the last to be recognized -and, to some extent, is still waiting for full recognition (www.usc.edu). With the Indian being forced to assimilate, their literature was forced to take on a written form. Although the traditional way of storytelling has changed, Native American Literature has survived. In it's written form, it is being shared with a larger population. Black Elk Speaks (Neihardt 1932) and The Lone Ranger and Tonto FistFight in Heaven (Alexie 1993) are two Native American works of

Every human to exists on earth experiences a moment in their life when they have felt immense despair, sorrow, or hopelessness. Whether it is from bereavement, depression, abuse, or trauma, the bitter feelings accompanied by those instances can quickly take over one’s life and suddenly, one becomes buried in dark emotions. At that moment, all the joy and happiness from previous instances in life diminishes, and suddenly the world seems dim. In the book, Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese, Saul Indian Horse experiences similar emotions since the time he was captured by the white Canadian men and taken to St. Jerome’s Residential School. From the appalling abuse as a child to the ruthless racism as a young adult, Saul’s majestic Ojibway life that

Throughout Black Elk’s life, their community was moved from one place to another, when they reached other destinations after awhile they had to fight whites and to live through loses and hard times. Black Elk always had the visions of the people dancing and the Grandfathers that were symbolizing villages in many dreams that he had to save. By telling the dreams to the village, they powered themselves and were going to fight in small groups relying on spirits to help them in, saying “today is a good day to live”.

Traditions and old teachings are essential to Native American culture; however growing up in the modern west creates a distance and ignorance about one’s identity. In the beginning, the narrator is in the hospital while as his father lies on his death bed, when he than encounters fellow Native Americans. One of these men talks about an elderly Indian Scholar who paradoxically discussed identity, “She had taken nostalgia as her false idol-her thin blanket-and it was murdering her” (6). The nostalgia represents the old Native American ways. The woman can’t seem to let go of the past, which in turn creates confusion for the man to why she can’t let it go because she was lecturing “…separate indigenous literary identity which was ironic considering that she was speaking English in a room full of white professors”(6). The man’s ignorance with the elderly woman’s message creates a further cultural identity struggle. Once more in the hospital, the narrator talks to another Native American man who similarly feels a divide with his culture. “The Indian world is filled with charlatan, men and women who pretend…”

Throughout history people of different races and ethnic backgrounds have struggled to get along and accept each other. In Michael Blake’s novel, Dances With Wolves, Lieutenant John Dunbar’s life changes after he becomes involved with the Comanche Indians. After a short period of time, both Dunbar and the Indians learn to trust each other. Through literary terms such as foreshadowing, symbolism, and similes, Blake proves the idea that love, friendship, belonging, and connection can be found between people of different backgrounds and races.

John Fire Lame Deer was a Sioux Indian tribal leader, medicine man, rodeo clown, and storyteller amongst other things. A selection from his autobiography Seeker Of Visions: The Life Of A Sioux Medicine Man titled “Talking to the Owls and Butterflies” is a short piece regarding nature and man’s relationship with it. The piece was intended to make an impression on white people in order to help salvage what is remaining in the environment. Lame Deer reprimands the “white world” for its negative outlook towards nature and the treatment of animals, he converses how man has changed and reshaped nature in order to make it more profitable. Stating that Caucasians have gone and altered animals in order to create

Like a coin dropped between the cushions of a couch, traditional oral storytelling is a custom fading away in current American culture. For Native Americans, however, the practice of oral storytelling is still a tradition that carries culture and rich history over the course of generations. Three examples of traditional oral stories, “How Men and Women Got Together”, “Coyote’s Rabbit Chase”, and “Corn Mother”, demonstrate key differences in perspectives and values among diverse native tribes in America.

     Throughout Ceremony, the author, Leslie Silko, displays the internal struggle that the American Indians faced at that time in history. She displays this struggle between good and evil in several parts of the book. One is the myth explaining the origin of the white man.

The Native American culture has a variety of different worldviews compared to other cultural worldviews. They are heavy with their culture and are highly endorsed for it because of its complexity and their dedication towards it. In the fictional novel based on true events, The Girl Who Sang to the Buffalo, written and narrated by two-time winner of the Minnesota Book Award, Kent Nerburn, Nerburn is on an adventure to help find peace in Native American elder, Dan’s, life that he has greatly endured, by searching for Yellowbird, who is Dan’s sister that has disappeared at a young age. Throughout the novel, Nerburn encounters many different Native American characters that played a role in discerning Native American worldviews. During Nerburns journey, his worldviews are challenged by Grover, a major Native American character in the novel.

What makes a dog so happy? Does it have to have something to do with its psychological immune system? Or is its spirit enjoying the world it is in? The Native American culture has many different ways they view things like animals, and it may change the views of others as well. They are very heavy with their religion and are highly endorsed for it. Native American worldviews are different than other religious cultural worldviews. In the fictional novel based on true events, “The Girl Who Sang to the Buffalo,” written and narrated by two-time winner of the Minnesota Book Award, Kent Nerburn, Nerburn witnesses firsthand how Native Americans visualize dreams, animals, the elderly and the power of words, while trying to help find peace to a character named Dan’s life as he has greatly endured. The characters that will be discussed are ones who played a significant role in the scenarios. The characters are Kent Nerburn, Grover, Jumbo, Dan, and Benais. Nerburns worldviews differentiates from the Native Americans at the beginning of the book but dramatically changes when he encounters the events he describes in his book in which some end in frustration because of Nerburns different views against Native American views.