Black Elk
Black Elk
Heȟáka Sápa was a famous wičháša wakȟáŋand heyoka of the Oglala Lakotawho lived in the present-day United States, primarily South Dakota. He was a second cousin of the war chief Crazy Horse...
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red sticks earth
So I took the bright red stick and at the center of the nation's hoop I thrust it in the earth.
prayer earth sacred
As you walk upon the sacred earth, treat each step as a prayer.
giving earth give-me-strength
Give me strength to walk the soft earth, a relative to all that is.
voice grandfather earth
Grandfather, Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and lean to hear my feeble voice.
prayer steps earth
Let every step you take upon the earth be as a prayer.
uncles lying men
They told me I had been sick twelve days, lying like dead all the while, and that Whirlwind Chaser, who was Standing Bear's uncle and a medicine man, had brought me back to life.
opportunity unity world
Every place is the center of the world.
lying people saws
I looked below and saw my people there, and all were well and happy except one, and he was lying like the dead - and that one was myself.
horse animal numbers
I looked about me once again, and suddenly the dancing horses without number changed into animals of every kind and into all the fowls that are, and these fled back to the four quarters of the world from whence the horses came, and vanished.
native-american circles shapes
I saw more than I can tell / And I understood more than I saw.
eye men darkness
It is in the darkness of their eyes that men lose their way.
white clouds mountain
Now suddenly there was nothing but a world of cloud, and we three were there alone in the middle of a great white plain with snowy hills and mountains staring at us; and it was very still; but there were whispers.
people vision bison
To use the power of the bison, I had to perform that part of my vision for the people to see.
native-american circles world
The power of the world always works in circles.