Neihardt, John G (1955). Ich rufe mein Volk: Leben, Traum und Untergang der Ogalalla-Sioux von Schwarzer Hirsch [Übers. von Siegfried Lang] (1st Germaned.). Olten: Walter Verlag. ISBN 3889775411. Hearing the Lakota side of the stories of their battles with the U.S. to hold on to the land and to maintain the culture that they loved so much was so eye-opening and personal to me. My heart aches for the victims of this American holocaust.

Black Elk Speaks by Black Elk | Goodreads Black Elk Speaks by Black Elk | Goodreads

Therefore I am sending a voice Great Spirit, my Grandfather, forgetting nothing you have made, the stars of the universe and the grasses of the earth. Harney Peak was named for General William Selby Harney, the American soldier who’d delivered the decisive blow of the First Sioux War in 1855, by demolishing the camp of Little Thunder’s Brule at Blue Water Creek, near present-day Ash Hollow, Nebraska. On August 11, 2016, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names removed Harney’s name from the prominence. And I, to whom so great a vision was given in my youth—you see me now a pitiful old man who has done nothing, for the nation’s hoop is broken and scattered. There is no center any longer, and the sacred tree is dead. His story and image were preserved and advanced when the Western poet John Neihardt wrote about him in the 1940s. I'm at the point in life where there is little else to linger for save yesterday. This book took me there in spades.

Author Bio

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). 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... Sākotnēji indiāņi tika radīti kā ļoti enerģētiski spējīga un jaudīga tauta, viņi sadarbojās ar stihijām, perfekti pārzināja stihiju valodas kā gari runā, viņi mācēja runāt vēja valodā, zemes valodā utml.

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Es lūkojos atpakaļ pagātnē un atsaucu atmiņā savas tautas seno dzīvesveidu, bet vairums vairs nedzīvoja tā kā agrāk. Viņi bija uzsākuši iet pa melno ceļu, katrs pats par sevi, ievērojot tikai nedaudzus savus likumus" (194.lp.) It is also a source of hope that people may recognize that great ideas are very hard to express, and may come to use through many imperfect attempts, all beautiful. 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.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. Not coincidentally, perhaps, the book also appears to have had a direct and profound influence on many novels I’ve loved: James Welch’s Fool’s Crow and The Heartsong of Charging Elk; Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, and my own novel, Will Poole’s Island. You have said to me, when I was still young and could hope, that in difficulty I should send a voice four times, once for each quarter of the earth, and you would hear me. 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.

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

Their connections don't stop there. They were not only two of the most famous people ever to put South Dakota on the map, but they both told their stories, for the first time, in print, in 1932.I could see that the Wasichus did not care for each other the way our people did before the nation’s hoop was broken. They would take everything from each other if they could, and so there were some who had more of everything than they could use, while crowds of people had nothing at all and maybe were starving. They had forgotten that the earth was their mother.

Black Elk Speaks - Wikipedia

With tears running, O Great Spirit, Great Spirit, my Grandfather, with tears running I must say now that the tree has never bloomed. A pitiful old man, you see me here, and I have fallen away and have done nothing. Here at the centre of the world, where you took me when I was young and taught me; here, old, I stand, and the tree is withered, Grandfather, my Grandfather! The way I see it, I can either stop everything and read this book alone for the rest of 2020, or I can finish my challenge like the overachiever I am. Tout ce que fait le pouvoir de l'Univers se fait dans un cercle. Le ciel est rond et j'ai entendu dire que la terre est ronde comme une balle et que toutes les étoiles le sont aussi. Les oiseaux font leur nid en cercle parce qu'ils ont la même religion que nous. Le soleil s'élève et redescend dans un cercle, la lune fait de même, et tous deux sont rond. I've made it to the half-way point, and the audio book is now on its way, too, but I had some interesting revelations of my own, while I was reading this important work.

Also of Interest

The prominent psychologist Carl Jung read the book in the 1930s and urged its translation into German; in 1955, it was published as Ich rufe mein Volk ( I Call My People). [3] Uppermost though, it is the story of a people that were self-sacrificing for the good of all, that only wanted to live with Nature as they always had, even on what little was left them in treaties. The obstacles were overwhelming though, with the greed of the weedy materialistic culture wanting all there was, and having no respect for the natural world. It is an age old story of avarice and genocide, this genocide the greatest by far in humankind's history [see Genocide of indigenous peoples, and Genocides in history articles on Wikipedia], estimated at upwards of ninety percent of the Indigenous population. According to geographers from University College London, the colonization of the Americas by Europeans killed so many people it resulted in climate change and global cooling. It is not some fanciful romanticized Cowboys and Indians tale of the sort on which I was raised. It is another version of the truth, one in which an honorable, dignified, and ancient culture were systematically cheated, misled, murdered, and ultimately destroyed in the name of western progress.