Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux [Paperback]

I saw this was rated one star and couldn't believe it. Now I see it was not the book that was being rated but erroneously it was the "seller" who failed to deliver. The seller should have given negative feedback to the seller and left the book alone.

This is a wonderful book on so many levels. I went back to college at 40+ and read it then. Later on I bought it for my grown son. It's full of patient wisdom and compassion that we all need to remember how to use and seldom see anymore. Some things never go out of style. They touch on basic human qualities and needs.

What makes this edition of Black Elk Speaks valuable is the marginal notes by Raymond L. DeMallie, who edited the typescripts of the original interviews from which John G. Neihardt created this book. These notes make clear just how much Neihardt used Black Elk's words to promote his own point of view. In the Kindle edition, these notes are hyperlinked to the text, which would have been a great idea if it had been done well. But the text of these notes in the Kindle edition is often incoherent, as though someone had read them aloud into a voice-recognition program that scrambled letters and mashed words together or separated them in strange ways. Sometimes numbers are translated as letters or other symbols. I had to compare a copy of the print edition with the Kindle text at several points before I could make sense of it. That defeated the whole purpose of having a digital copy. Also, getting back to the text from the notes was often a problem. Amazon should exercise quality control with its electronic books.

I didn't read this edition; a little paperback version came to me. I read it long ago and read it again recently. This book had an incredible impact on me. Over the years people have come to criticize the author, John Neidhardt. The book ends somewhat abruptly not long after Wounded Knee and then there is an account of Black Elk's prayer on Harney Peak when he was an old man and he asked to make his people live again kind of tacked on the end. Many seem to feel Neidhardt was exploiting Black Elk to get a book out of him. I don't claim to be an expert on Black Elk and this subject, but from what I know I do not agree with the totally cynical assessment. Black Elk had been off the reservation as a young man in the Buffalo Bill Show and given his experiences he was hardly naive or ignorant. Black Elk's son Ben had been in the Carlyle school so he would have known if the book did not reflect his father's vision and words and life. The book was also not an instant bestseller. Neidhardt promoted this book and Black Elk's vision tirelessly until the end of his life and I truly believe it was because he saw the incredible spiritual nature of Black Elk, his life, and visions. And his "great vision" as a youngster can only be described as cataclysmic and psychedelic. When the spirits want you to see something you will see it and no drugs are necessary.

Neidhardt left out the ensuing years on Pine Ridge Reservation and Black Elk's acceptance of Catholicism to frame a lost way of life, the sadness and injustice of it, and the greatness and seeming inevitability of Black Elk's vision. I believe any poetic license taken was in service of bringing forth a greater truth. Those who want to pick at the book miss the greater impact of Black Elk's life and vision. As this was not Neidhardt's culture he probably also didn't totally understand nor was he able to explain some things, but again, are we missing the greater truth of the book by focusing on imperfections? Read this book with an open heart and you won't be disappointed.

Some feel Black Elk became a Catholic as a way of continuing to teach the Lakota way along with the Christian faith to preserve the Lakota culture. I believe he was intelligent and had such a great spirit he saw he could blend both faiths and build a bridge for the future. Nor was he intimidated into the Christian faith. His daughter said his acceptance of the Catholic faith was true and not a sham to keep teaching the Lakota ways surreptitiously. After reading this book, if Black Elk interests you there are books available on the later half of his life. Black Elk lived until 1950.

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