WHO ARE THE PERSONALITIES AT
TEMPLE UNIVERSAL?
BLACK
ELK
Man of Power
and Vision
From
“The Sacred Pipe”
Black Elk's Account
of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux
Recorded and Edited by Joseph Epes Brown
Black Elk first became known to a wide range of
readers in 1932, through John G. Neihardt's Black
Elk Speaks: The Life Story of a Holy Man of the
Oglala Sioux.
Neihardt's poetic and sympathetic treatment of this
unusual man's life and mission raises the question
as to who in fact Black Elk Really was.
A VERY HOLY MAN
For if the account is faithful to at least the essential
qualities of the man, then it is clear that - even
among a people noted for their large share of great
personalities -
here was an unusual man of vision; a holy man in
the full sense of the term; and a man upon whom
destiny, in a time of cultural crisis, had placed
a heavy burden of responsibility for the spiritual
welfare of his people. Here too could also be an
important message for the larger world.
I went to find Black Elk in the fall of 1947.
After following his traces across many of the Western
states, we finally met in an old canvas-wall tent
on a Nebraska farm where his family and members
of their band were employed in harvesting potatoes
During that first encounter we simply sat side by
side on a sheepskin and silently smoked the red
stone pipe I had brought with me as an offering
in the traditional manner.
THE ESSENCE OF THE MAN
Partly crippled, almost completely blind, he seemed
a pitiful old man as he sat there hunched over,
dressed in poor cast-off clothing.
But through the beauty of his face and the reverent
quality of his movements as he smoked the pipe,
it was clear that Neihardt had given to us the essence
of the man -
an initial impression confirmed by the subsequent
years I spent with Black Elk. Knowing that Black
Elk had usually refused to talk with many outsiders,
it was with relief and wonder that I heard his first
words: he had anticipated my coming and he wished
me to spend that winter with him, for he had much
to tell of the sacred things before they all passed
away.
I spent that very cold winter with Black Elk and
his generous family, in their little hewn-log house
under the pine-covered bluffs near Manderson, SD.
I am fortunate in having met at least some of those
men of the old days who possessed great human and
spiritual qualities.
But Black Elk had a special quality of power and
kindliness and a sense of mission that was unique
and which I am sure was recognized by all who had
the opportunity to know him.
HIS YOUTH AND POWERS
During his youth he had been instructed in the
sacred lore of his people by such great men as Whirlwind
Chaser, Black Road, and the sage Elk Head, Keeper
of the Sacred Pipe, from whom he had learned the
history and deep meanings of his people's spiritual
heritage.
Through prayer, fasting, and a deepening understanding
of this heritage, Black Elk himself eventually acquired
special powers to be used for the good of his nation.
HIS RESPONSIBILITY
This responsibility to "bring to life the
flowering tree of his people" haunted Black
Elk all his life and caused him much suffering.
Although he had been given the power to lead his
people in the ways of his grandfathers, he did not
understand how the vision could be brought to life.
It was certainly because of his pervasive sense
of mission that Black Elk wished to set forth this
book explaining the major rites of the Oglala Sioux,
for he hoped that in this manner his own people
would gain a better understanding of the truths
of their own Indian tradition. So too, perhaps,
would the whites.
HIS MESSAGE
It has now been over twenty years since Black Elk
last spoke.
Many changes have taken place in these years and
they require that Black Elk's message, like the
similar messages of other tradition-oriented people,
be placed in new perspective and in a new light.
At the time Black Elk was lamenting the broken hoop
of his nation, it was generally believed, even by
the specialists, to be only a matter of time (very
little time in fact) before the Indians with their
seemingly archaic and anachronistic cultures would
be completely assimilated into a larger American
society convinced of its own superiority and the
validity of its goals.
We are still very far from being aware of the dimensions
and ramifications of our ethnocentric illusions.
Nevertheless, by the very nature of things, we are
now forced to undergo a process of intense self-examination
and to engage in a serious revelation of the promises
and orientations of our society. For example, the
inescapable reality of the ecological crisis has
for many people shattered a kind of a dream world.
In their relationships to this troubled America,
the Indians encompass a wide variety of possible
positions.
On one hand are the few traditional and conservative
groups that, against enormous pressures, have miraculously
remained very close to the essence of their ancient
and still viable life-ways On the other hand are
the groups that have become completely assimilated
into the larger American society. Nevertheless,
almost all Indian groups that retain any degree
of self-identity are now reexamining, through a
wide range of means and expressions, their relationships
to that larger society, which now tends to represent
diminishing attractions.
BLACK ELK'S SUCCESS
If there is a validity to the above statements,
it seems clear that it is too early to say that
Black Elk's mission to bring his people back to
"the good red road" has failed as he thought
it had. Rather, his mission may be succeeding in
ways he could not have anticipated.
Black elk was a member of the Oglala division of
the Teton Sioux. These Western Teton were one of
the seven bands or "Council fires" of
the Dakota ("Allied") nation. This is
one of the nations belonging to the large Siouan
linguistic family, which also includes the Assiniboin,
Crow, Hidatsa, Iowa, Kansa, Mandan, Missouri, Omaha,
Osage, Oto, Poca and Quapaw.
According to their own historical account, the
Dakota were established on the headwaters of the
Mississippi River as late as the sixteenth century.
In the seventeenth century they were driven westward
from Minnesota by their enemies the Chippewa. In
leaving the forests and lakes, the Dakotas substituted
the horse for the bark canoe with remarkable ease.
In the nineteenth century they became known and
feared as one of the most powerful nations of the
plains. Indeed, it was these Dakota Sioux who offered
perhaps the strongest resistance of all the Indians
groups to the westward movement of the whites.
This account of the sacred pipe and the rites of
the Oglala Sioux was handed down orally to three
men by the former Keeper of the Sacred Pipe, Elk
Head (Hehaka Pa).
Of these three, Black Elk was the only one still
living at the time this history was written. (Black
Elk himself died in August 1950.) When Elk Head
gave this account to Black Elk, he told him that
it must be handed down - that their people will
live for as long as the rites are known and the
pipe is used. But as soon as the sacred pipe is
forgotten, the people will be without a center and
they will perish.
I wish to acknowledge my gratitude to Benjamin
Black Elk, who acted as interpreter for this work
and who is the son of Black Elk. It is unusual to
have an interpreter who understands both English
and Lakota perfectly, and who, is also familiar
with the wisdom and rites of his people.
I also acknowledge my gratitude to the Smithsonian
Institute for the Barry photograph of Sitting Bull
and to the Illuminated Phote-Ad Service of Sioux
Falls, S.D. for having given me permission to use
their photograph of seven Sioux who participated
in the battle of the Little Bighorn and who were
all close friends of Black Elk.- Joshep Epes Brown
- Indiana University, Bloomington, February 1971.
