Now what I did like about this book was that part of the Sioux history that I have not read before, their life once confined to reservations. While the book did deal with the tribe's history before the end of hostilities and included the incidents of Sand Creek, Fetterman's Ambush, Little Big Horn, and Wounded Knee, this history has been treated with greater depth and detail in other works. This earlier history, however, did set the stage for the tragedy of reservation life and the degradation of the Sioux culture. This part of Indian history can easily provoke discussion and debate and this part of the book is what really saved it for me. I can understand the harsh treatment of Indians in the 19th century when memories of the hostilities were still fresh and the participants still alive but the treatment persisted into the 20th century with no real improvement. The very idea of the need for change doesn't even seem to exist until after Neihardt's book is published and read by a few people in positions to affect change. Another sad part of our history with Native Americans. Arī šajā grāmatā ir faktu materiāls par to, piemēram, viņi karo pat savā starpā, nogalina, rituālos upurē dzīvniekus, necienīgi izturas pret ienaidnieka līķiem - noskalpē, savāc apģērbu... Es redzēju, ka baltie cits par citu nerūpējās tā, kā darīja mūsu cilvēki, pirms tika izpostīts cilts aplis. Viņi atņēma cits citam visu, ja vien varēja, un tādēļ starp viņiem bija tādi, kuriem bija ļoti daudz visa kā - vairāk, nekā tie varēja izmantot, kamēr ļaužu pūļiem nebija vispār nekā, un tie varbūt cieta badu. Viņi bija aizmirsuši, ka zeme ir viņu māte. Tā dzīvot nebija labāk par to, kā mēs dzīvojām senāk." (195.lp).

Black Elk Speaks book by John G. Neihardt - ThriftBooks Black Elk Speaks book by John G. Neihardt - ThriftBooks

However, they were both successful at the same thing: depicting South Dakota as one of our most beautiful states, a place where young children and their families could both rely on Nature's bounty and be restored by it, in every sense. It is a state I hold so dear to my heart, and both of them have made me love it even more, realizing what it must have been for them. grāmata ir par Ziemeļamerikas indiāņu tautas nežēlīgas iznīcināšanas aculiecinieku stāstījumu par tautai liktenīgiem notikumiem 19.gs. otrajā pusē.Other examples include the circle (hoop), which not only symbolizes life's cyclical journey, but also represents a way of life in interacting with each other in a circular fashion to negate power struggles. The number four also has special significance, as in the elements of Earth, fire, air, and water; the seasons of winter, spring, summer and fall; and the primary directions of North, South, East, and West. Symbols can also be used in combination, such as a circle divided into quarters with four arrows signifying wisdom, innocence, foresight, and soul-searching. The University of Nebraska Press is part of a land-grant institution with campuses and programs on the past, present, and future homelands of the Pawnee, Ponca, Otoe-Missouria, Omaha, Dakota, Lakota, Kaw, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Peoples, as well as those of the relocated Ho-Chunk, Sac and Fox, and Iowa Peoples. Still, he’s a fascinating subject, and this biography, in my view, does him justice as a flawed man of immense strength and passion who lived through some of the most heart-wrenching and momentous years of American history. I’m tempted to call him a great American, but that would be reductive. He was a great human, and he belongs not only to America but to the whole world. That may explain his transformation of the plain-spoken style of the transcript into a somewhat maudlin kind of free verse, seeming to my eyes to be modeled after Goethe's "Sorrows of Young Werther" or the American transcendentalists. One of the stage presentations was the first 'paying gig' for Wes Studi, with the lead played by none other than David Carradine. [10] See also [ edit ]

Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of…

I'm trained to be suspicious of stories like this: an old Lakota shaman decides to tell all about his previously secret visions to a white poet so he can write them in English and publish them. ??! But a shallow-digging internet search does not turn up anything suggesting against this, so okay. Although harder for our scientific western culture to fathom, it is also possible to see these visions as visions, experienced by a person who was open to them by either illness or ability. John Neihardt's classic is a problematic read to be sure. On the one hand, Neihardt was a sympathetic interlocutor who elicited a fascinating account from an extraordinary man who lived through several major episodes in late-19th-century history. On the other hand, his poetic pretensions led him to rearrange and dress up that testimony, adorning it with his own mediocre neo-Romantic insight, and altogether distorting the historical and cultural record. This is a story from the perspective of indigenous beliefs, born of how they perceived the natural world they had an intimate relationship with. A people with deep respect for the unknowable, that knew well the brightness and darkness inherent in the psyche of all life forms, and that understood the connectedness of all life. That in sharp contrast to so-called civilized peoples that plunder our little blue canoe, blindly driving nails in humankind's coffin. Just finished reading it. And, I’m still teary eyed thinking of the things this man witnessed and endured.Orange, Tommy (22 Jul 2021). "The Untold Stories of Wes Studi". GQ. Condé Nast . Retrieved 2 September 2023. The crimes of the white government and the settlers against Native Americans in terms of broken promises and a unfulfilled treaties loom large in this work. The violence used by the army to relegate the tribes to reservations is inexcusable and a stain in our nation’s history.