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...
ProfessionLeader
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.
opportunity unity world
Every place is the center of the world.
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.
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.
summer thinking years
I was four years old then, and I think it must have been the next summer that I first heard the voices.
moving native-american circles
Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a person is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.
given said nations
A good nation I will make live.This the nation above has said.They have given me the power to make over.
thinking ifs happened
Whether it happened so or not I do not know; but if you think about it you can see that it is true.
depression roots bird
It may be that some little root of the sacred tree still lives. Nourish it then, that it may leaf and bloom and fill with singing birds.
winter men thinking
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?
inspirational dance horse
After the horse dance was over, it seemed that I was above the ground and did not touch it when I walked.
prayer earth sacred
As you walk upon the sacred earth, treat each step as a prayer.
mother running father
When I got back to my father and mother and was sitting up there in our tepee, my face was still all puffed and my legs and arms were badly swollen; but I felt good all over and wanted to get right up and run around.