Biography of Black Elk

Black Elk, also known as Heȟáka Sápa, was a prominent spiritual leader, medicine man, and cultural figure of the Oglala Lakota Sioux people. He was born around 1863 in present-day Wyoming, in the Black Hills region of the United States. Black Elk is best known for his involvement in the events surrounding the Battle of Little Bighorn and his spiritual teachings, which were later recorded in the book Black Elk Speaks.

As a young boy, Black Elk experienced visions that he believed were spiritual messages and prophecies. He began his training as a medicine man and spiritual leader under the guidance of his father and other tribal elders. Throughout his life, he played a significant role in preserving Lakota traditions and spirituality.

In 1876, at the age of approximately thirteen, Black Elk participated in the Battle of Little Bighorn, a significant conflict between the Lakota and the United States Army. This battle, in which General George Custer and his forces were defeated, became a defining moment in the history of the Lakota people and Native American resistance to U.S. expansion.

Black Elk’s experiences at Little Bighorn and his spiritual insights led him to become a respected spiritual leader within the Lakota community. He traveled extensively, sharing his teachings and participating in various ceremonies and rituals. Black Elk’s spiritual wisdom and healing abilities made him highly regarded among his people and beyond.

In the early 1930s, Black Elk’s life and spiritual teachings were recorded and interpreted by John Neihardt, an American poet and writer. Their collaboration resulted in the book Black Elk Speaks, published in 1932. The book offers insights into Black Elk’s personal experiences, Lakota spirituality, and the challenges faced by Native Americans during a time of profound cultural change.

Black Elk Speaks became widely read and influential, introducing many readers to Lakota spirituality and Native American perspectives. The book continues to be regarded as an important source for understanding Native American culture and spirituality.

Black Elk passed away on August 19, 1950, in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, leaving behind a legacy as a visionary and spiritual leader. His teachings and the accounts of his life and experiences continue to inspire and educate people about the traditions, spirituality, and history of the Lakota Sioux and Native American peoples as a whole.

Black Elk Speaks

Ch. 1, “The Offering of the Pipe”

By Black Elk, as told through John Neihardt

My friend, I am going to tell you the story of my life, as you wish; and if it were only the story of my life I think I would not tell it; for what is one man that he should make much of his winters; even when they bend him like a heavy snow? So many other men have lived and shall live that story, to be grass upon the hills.

It is the story of all life that is holy and is good to tell, and of us two-leggeds sharing in it with the four-leggeds and the wings of the air and all green things; for these are children of one mother and their father is one Spirit.

This then, is not the tale of a great hunger or of a great warrior, or of a great traveler, although I have made much meat in my time and fought for my people both as boy and man, and have gone far and seen strange lands and men. So also have many others done, and better than I.

These things I shall remember by the way, and often they may seem to be the very tale itself, as when I was living them in happiness and sorrow. But now that I can see it all from a lonely hilltop, I know it was the story of a mighty vision given to a man too weak to use it; of a holy tree that should have flourished in a people’s heart with flowers and singing birds, and now is withered; and of a people’s dream that died in bloody snow.

But if the vision was true and mighty, as I know, it is true and mighty yet; for such things are of the spirit, and it is in the darkness of their eyes that men get lost.

So I know that it is a good thing I am going to do; and because no good thing can be done by any man alone, I will first make an offering and send a voice to the Spirit of the World, that it may help me to be true.

See, I fill this sacred pipe with the bark of the red willow; but before we smoke it, you must see how it is made and what it means. These four ribbons hanging here on the stem are the four quarters of the universe. The black one is for the west where the thunder beings live to send us rain; the white one for the north, whence comes the great white cleansing wind; the red one for the east, whence springs the light and where the morning star lives to give men wisdom; the yellow for the south, whence come the summer and the power to grow.

But these four spirits are only one Spirit after all, and this eagle feather here is for that One, which is like a father, and also it is for the thoughts of men that should rise high as eagles do. Is not the sky a father and the earth a mother, and are not all living things with feet or wings or roots their children? And this hide upon the mouthpiece here, which should be bison hide, is for the earth, from whence we came and at whose breast we suck as babies all our lives, along with all the animals and birds and trees and grasses. And because it means all this, and more than any man can understand, the pipe is holy.

There is a story about the way the pipe first came to us. A very long time ago, they say, two scouts were out looking for bison; and when they came to the top of a high hill and looked north, they saw something coming a long way off, and when it came closer they cried out,

“It is a woman!,”

and it was. Then one of the scouts, being foolish, had bad thoughts and spoke them; but the other said:

“That is a sacred woman; throw all bad thoughts away.”

When she came still closer, they saw that she wore a fine white buckskin dress, that her hair was very long and that she was young and very beautiful. And she knew their thoughts and said in a voice that was like singing:

“You do not know me, but if you want to do as you think, you may come.”

And the foolish one went; but just as he stood before her, there was a white cloud that came and covered them. And the beautiful young woman came out of the cloud, and when it blew away the foolish man was a skeleton covered with worms.

Then the woman spoke to the one who was not foolish:

“You shall go home and tell your people that I am coming and that a big tepee shall be built for me in the center of the nation.”

And the man, who was very much afraid, went quickly and told the people, who did at once as they were told; and there around the big tepee they waited for the sacred woman. And after a while she came, very beautiful and singing, and as she went into the tepee this is what she sang:

“With visible breath I am walking.
A voice I am sending as I walk.
In a sacred manner I am walking.
With visible tracks I am walking.
In a sacred manner I walk.”

And as she sang, there came from her mouth a white cloud that was good to smell. Then she gave something to the chief, and it was a pipe with a bison calf carved on one side to mean the earth that bears and feeds us, and with twelve eagle feathers hanging from the stem to mean the sky and the twelve moons, and these were tied with a grass that never breaks.

“Behold!” she said.

“With this you shall multiply and be a good nation. Nothing but good shall come from it. Only the hands of the good shall take care of it and the bad shall not even see it.”

Then she sang again and went out of the tepee; and as the people watched her going, suddenly it was a white bison galloping away and snorting, and soon it was gone.

This they tell, and whether it happened so or not I do not know; but if you think about it, you can see that it is true.

Now I light the pipe, and after I have offered it to the powers that are one Power, and sent forth a voice to them, we shall smoke together. Offering the mouthpiece first of all to the One above—so—I send a voice;

Hey hey! Hey hey! Hey hey! Hey hey!

Grandfather, Great Spirit, you have been always, and before you no one has been. There is no other one to pray to but you. You yourself, everything that you see, everything has been made by you. The star nations all over the universe you have finished. The four quarters of the earth you have finished. The day, and in that day, everything you have finished. Grandfather, Great Spirit, lean close to the earth that you may hear the voice I send.

You towards where the sun goes down, behold me; Thunder Beings, behold me!

You where the White Giant lives in power, behold me!

You where the sun shines continually, whence come the day-break star and the day, behold me! You where the summer lives, behold me!

You in the depths of the heavens, an eagle of power, behold! And you, Mother Earth, the only Mother, you who have shown mercy to your children!

Hear me, four quarters of the world—a relative I am! Give me the strength to walk the soft earth, a relative to all that is! Give me the eyes to see and the strength to understand, that I may be like you. With your power only can I face the winds.

Great Spirit, Great Spirit, my Grandfather, all over the earth the faces of living things are all alike. With tenderness have these come up out of the ground. Look upon these faces of children without number and with children in their arms, that they may face the winds and walk the good road to the day of quiet.

This is my prayer; hear me! The voice I have sent is weak, yet with earnestness I have sent it. Hear me!

It is finished. Hetchetu aloh!

Now, my friend, let us smoke together so that there may be only good between us.

Source: Black Elk Speaks, Washington Square Press, 1972, originally published in 1932.