![]() ![]() Their horses are taken and never paid for. Their land has been sold to (or taken by) a government that will not enact treaties with them. The chapter also charts the worsening situation as Indians are forced into various agencies. In this vision, the whites are clarified as the enemy. ![]() ![]() This vision features many of the symbols of his first vision: the sacred pipe, the flowering stick, the herb, the four quarters of the earth, and the flying men. He is granted another vision that confirms the earlier message, that he will be empowered to restore his people. Here, Black Elk asks for greater understanding from the spirits who granted him his first vision. In the Sioux lamentation ritual, the one who laments seeks a vision. Few Tails wakes him, and he goes back to the village where the old men say he has been granted a rare vision that he must perform for the people in 20 days. Black Elk accepts his duty and sees the daybreak star, the faces of people yet to be born, and contented animals living together. The two flying men of his earlier vision, on horseback, show him bloody dogs' heads impaled on their arrows the dogs' heads turn into the heads of Wasichus (white men). Various birds appear to him, as well as a swarm of butterflies that are crying pitifully. He asks the Great Spirit for understanding. Alone, following Few Tails's instructions, he paces out the four quarters of the earth and weeps, thinking of his people's past and the tragic death of Crazy Horse. He fasts and purifies himself and, taking the sacred pipe, goes to a sacred place on a hill where Few Tails plants the flowering stick. Spring comes, and Black Elk performs a lamentation ritual with the help of the old medicine man Few Tails. He wonders why he was granted the vision if he could not do anything with it. He could cure individual people, but not the nation. He feels the deep despair of his people, and sad that he was not able to do anything for his nation. The winter is hard he longs for spring, when the spirits of his vision will return. He sees the flying men of his vision and feels confirmed in his decision to join the Oglala and do his duty.īlack Elk moves on to the agency being built for the Oglala, Pine Ridge, which the Indians call the Seat of Red Cloud or the Place Where Everything Is Disputed. Black Elk goes alone to sit up on a bluff and sing to the spirits of his vision. He and others set out, staying first with the Brules who are encamped on the Rosebud. Eighteen years old now, Black Elk begins to feel that he should join the rest of his own people, the Oglala, and perform the duty his vision entrusted to him. President) will pay them for the horses, but that has never happened. The Indians' guns and horses are taken from them, and they are told that the Great Father (the U.S. A steamboat takes them to a Lakota reservation at Fort Yates, where many of Sitting Bull's and Gall's people are although Sitting Bull and Gall are in Canada. Soldiers tell Black Elk's group that they may not stay on their land any longer because they have sold it to the U.S. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |