Black Elk Speaks (2000) is more than a history of the plains Indians of the latter 19th century. Black Elk was a religious elder of a people that has historically relied on the oral tradition. So this recounting of his life and his vision can be seen as a sacred text that has been preserved on paper instead of committed to memory. As Black Elk begins to relate his life and his vision to John Neihardt, he calls upon the Spirit of the World to keep him true (2), and then he reaffirms the authority of his vision, his tribeÆs belief system, and his belief that somehow, this vision can still be fulfilled.
When Black Elk was five years old he heard the spirit voices and saw the two messengers who flew down from the sky (14-15). He knew that this was not a dream, but a vision that came from the One Spirit. From that time he would occasionally hear the spirit world trying to talk to him (16) but did not know what these spirits wanted from him until much later. When he did have his vision at the age of nine he understood it to be a real vision since the same messengers that he had seen when he was five, now came to him when he was nine saying, ôHurry! Come! Your Grandfathers are calling you!ö (17). The Grandfathers, who represented the several spirits of the world, and therefore the One Spirit, were having a council to give Black Elk a vision, and the power and responsibility to fulfill that vision. By them he was given the cup of life, the healing herb, the bow of war, the peace pipe, the tree of life and shown his nationÆs hoop when they walk the red road (the good road) and then the black road (the bad road) (20-23). One of the Grandfathers also pointed to the two flying men and said, ôFrom them you shall have power...who have awakened all the beings of the earth with roots and legs and wingsö (21-22). Black Elk told Neihardt that the vision was clearer than anything he had ever seen, the words more true than any he had ev...