Image Source: Transcendental Graphics
Black Elk, an Oglala Lakota holy man, is one of the most studied and written-about Native Americans. His story was first told by John Neihardt in Black Elk Speaks, a book-length poem published in 1932 that spans Black Elk’s life from his childhood to the 1890s. Black Elk claimed to have witnessed the Battle of Little Bighorn and described the difficult years that followed, as his people were forced onto reservations, faced deep poverty, and experienced life as prisoners on their ancestral lands. His story also captures the brief resurgence of hope with the Ghost Dance movement before it ended in tragedy at the Wounded Knee Massacre.
In 1886, Black Elk joined Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show, touring cities in the eastern United States and Europe. His later life, chronicled by Jesuit author Michael Steltenkamp in Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala, highlights his role as a Catholic missionary. According to Steltenkamp and Black Elk’s daughter Lucy Looks Twice, Black Elk traveled with Jesuits, helping convert Arapaho, Winnebago, and Omaha communities and even raising funds in eastern cities. In his later years, he continued sharing his faith while performing at South Dakota tourist sites, blending his roles as a Lakota holy man and Catholic missionary.
Steltenkamp notes that Black Elk saw no conflict between his traditional Lakota spirituality and his Catholic faith. He died in 1950 during a meteor shower on the Pine Ridge Reservation, fulfilling his own prediction that lights in the sky would mark his passing.
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