Review of Black Elk Speaks

Review of Black Elk Speaks
The book Black Elk speaks is about A Lakota Native American man from the Oglala banned whose name is Black Elk. This name has been passed around from his great grand father, to his grand father, to his father, and finally to him. This story takes place in different places. There are two things that this book discusses. One of them is a Part of His life as a child, and a story of a great vision. The book tells a lot about Native American traditions. It also talks about the numerous problems and obstacles that they have to overcome.
The book is written in the first person, and he also introduces some people that give more details about a particular story. These people also speak in the first person. It is as if each one of the people who is telling a story, was writing it in a journal.
The book starts with Black Elk telling a story of a woman who wanted the people to build her a tepee. . He describes an offering that they did with a pipe. Then, he describes what a pipe means to them. It seemed as if John Neihardt is putting the reader in a place where he or she could experience what the people in the story were doing. An example is when everyone is passing around a pipe that was supposed to symbolize peace. This act reminded me of other ceremonies that I have heard about that are very similar to this one.
Black elk introduces himself within the first pages. He says that he was born on the little pouter river on a wintery December of 1963.
The book includes stories of battles that he as well as his friends and other neighbors had to fight with the Wasichus which is an enemy tribe that are trying to take away there lands. In this book, the Lakota are fighting with everything they have to keep the things that are sacred to them. The goal is to always keep on fighting and never give up. In one of the battles, for example, iron hawk who is introduced by Black Elk, had to move fast with the group that he was in because there were crows behind them that were trying to attack them. There were only a few people in Iron hawks group. According to him, there were about 40 of them, but the crows had more people with them. They were the Soldiers and because of them, the crows fought harder.
There are several visions in this book, but the major one is the one that Black Elk had. He says that when he was five years old, before he had his great vision, he had heard voices, but he did not give much attention. Then, when he was nine years old, he saw two men with him. When he first saw them, he was very stunned and he could not stop looking at them. Before he saw the two men, he was scared of the two voices. When he had his great vision, A cloud took him up. He goes on to say that he felt bad for mom and dad because he felt sorry for them. The Two men, who were with him, and who had appeared to him before, told him that his grandfathers were having a meeting. He saw 6 old men which were not his grandfathers, but the six powers one of them was the power of the earth, the others were the powers of the west, east, south, and of the sky respectively. He saw his people rejoice and also sick, but he was told that he had the power to restore them to the way they were. The six men gave him different things to prove this. As he went throughout the world, he was doing things for the people. Soon, he was on the ground and he saw his mom and dad as well as A doctor trying to make him feel better because he was not really healthy. For 12 days, he was comatose and his parents were trying everything they could to bring him back to health. Soon enough, he was feeling much better. It seemed as if Black Elk was given a great responsibility which he was determined to carry out. Sometimes, he felt as if nothing was going the way things were supposed to go. Because he was trying to find an answer, he wanted time alone. He did not get the relief that he wanted until the village that he was in reenacted his vision after he told part of it to a doctor. By now, He was able to take his people out of danger. The people, who did not talk to him before, now, came to him.
Black Elk does a really good job at describing his vision. For a moment, I felt as if I was up there with him watching what everyone was doing down here. I could feel myself flying and taking in the joy as well as the sadness that everyone went through.
Black Elk talks about how he had to move around and camp in different places. the roads that led to them, as well as Some of those places were very well described, and I could also see myself in one of those places. For example he talked about when he along with some other people had to camp at the head of a place called, “Spring Creek.
There were several things that I did not like about the story. For example, Black Elk talks about a man who was trying to steel a horse from another man. The man, who had the horse, was guarding the place that he was staying at. He was too sleepy to stay up, so, he woke his wife up so she could keep guard. She told him that she thought there was somebody out there. When he went to see what was going on, he saw that there was someone trying to steel the best horse. After he instructed her on what to do, the thief got up on the horse. This is when the man shot the thief from a little whole that was in the tepee. When the other people heard the shot, they all went to where the body was and some of the people cut him up. Then, they started a fire around the thief. Then, they danced around him and sang songs about the man who had killed the thief.
I found this to be very disturbing and moving. For a minute, I was asking my self if these people cared about any children that this man might have had.
Another example of a story I did not like is that the kids would hurt women and children. Although they were only having fun, and it seemed as if the adults did not care, I found it to be very bad. In one of the descriptions, Black Elk talked about how he with some other kids used to gather sharp spear grass and when they found a man without a shirt, they would stick those things into the man to see if he would cry. According to Black Elk, they were supposed to endure everything.
There are several obstacles that Black Elk along with his people had to face. One of them is the Wasichus, and the bad weather conditions, the US government.
This book will take you on a journey in which the reader will sea starvation, bad weather, battles, dancing, poverty, and sadness. Be prepared to clime the mountains as well as camp with them and see where they take you.
I would recommend this book because of the stories and because one of these will touch a persons hart in one way or another.