I did not know then how much was ending. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age I can still see the butchered women and children heaped and scattered all along the crooked mulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud and was buried in the blizzard.

Interwoven with Black Elk's many spiritual and healing visions
is the pure horror of the white man's attempt to exterminate all the Indian people.. ( )

Interesting account from a Lakota man who lived at the time of Crazy Horse and Custer. Includes religous practices. ( )

I enjoyed this book. I found it kind of difficult when I was reading it to figure out what was actually Black Elk, and what was Neihardt, although the editor had thankfully given little footnotes on the side. While I think this was a powerful book, and very interesting to read, the lack of any true authenticity bothered me quite a lot. I didn't really understand why Neihardt couldn't just tell us what Black Elk said. It was obvious to me that good parts of the book were Black Elk's words filtered through a European-American consciousness in such a way that they would be understandable to European-Americans. And this bugged me, some places more than others.

Still, looking at the time when it was written, I think the interesting thing of the book is not what it tells you of Black Elk (of which most words were to me suspect because of Neihardt's 'filter'), but of what it tells you of Neihardt and the mainstream society of the time.

This is not a book to read if you want an accurate, authentic autobiography of Native Americans, but it is an interesting book of Native American/European-American fusion for the time period. ( )

"Black Elk Speaks, the story of the Oglala Lakota visionary and healer Nicholas Black Elk (1863-1950) and his people during momentous twilight years of the nineteenth century, offers readers much more than a precious glimpse of a vanished time. Black Elk's searing visions of the unity of humanity and Earth, conveyed by John G. Neihardt, have made this book a classic that crosses multiple genres. Whether appreciated as the poignant tale of a Lakota life, a history of a Native nation, or an enduring spiritual testament, Black Elk Speaks is unforgettable" The author sat with Black Elk and others of the Lakota and wrote down as translated a wonderful story of prophesy, being at the battle of the Little Big Horn, and being involved in the Ghost Dance and the massacre at Wounded Knee as well as the attempted breaking/eradication of the native people and their beliefs. This should be required reading in school. ( )