Black Elk’s Dream … and Mine…

Black Elk was a ‘wichasa wakhan’ — medicine or holy man — of the Oglala Lakota, born in late 1863 on the Little Powder River in Wyoming. He had been taken ill at age nine, unresponsive and lying in a coma for several days. During that time he’d been transported to the central mountain at the center of the earth and visited by great powers, including the Thunder Beings. Later, upon telling the medicine men about the details of his vision, they were astonished by its scope and greatness.

He was also a warrior and second cousin of Crazy Horse, with whom he fought against the incursion of white settlers and, at age 13, defeated Custer in the Battle of Little Bighorn. Subsequently, after his people were rounded up and confined to the Pine Ridge Reservation, he settled near Wounded Knee Creek. From age 19 on, he was well-known as a healer and became a leader of the Ghost Dance movement, which — regarded as a threat and source of resistance by the US government — was effectively ended with the massacre of more than 200 men, women, children, and elders at Wounded Knee.

In 1930, the writer John Neihardt met with Black Elk — then an elder himself — and recorded his life story and knowledge of Lakota history and traditions… later published as “Black Elk Speaks.”

In its final chapter, Black Elk, filled with anguish about the surrender in the wake of Wounded Knee, lamented, “Something died in the bloody mud and was buried in the blizzard — I did not know then how much. A people’s dream… a beautiful dream died there.”

In late 1979 I read Black Elk Speaks. It included many details of his life and a description of his great vision, where he was transported to the central mountain at the center of the earth – to him, Harney Peak in the Black Hills** – and shown the possibility of mending the hoop, renewing the land, and restoring wholeness to his people.

The book inspired me so much — I felt “I have to do this!” — the following summer I hitchhiked to South Dakota, hiked up Harney Peak and fasted without food, water, or sleep. There I had my own “vision” and knew that, somehow, “taking people to the mountain” (guiding vision quests) would be a core part of my life’s journey.

Today, as I think about Black Elk’s life – the remarkable gift revealed to him followed by witnessing the destruction of his people … his tremendous grief and feeling this gift had come to naught (“a beautiful dream died there”) – I realize the debt I owe him. I read his book, and his vision catalyzed and helped germinate mine; 116 years later it led me to my own beautiful dream, helped guide me to where I am now.

Without his words and vision, I may have never discovered mine. This path — and the central question of the vision quest, “What gift do you have to give to your people?” — led me to “my people,” introduced me to most of those I know and love today.

In some important sense, he is a “grandfather” to me — a mentor, teacher, and hero. Though he lamented the dream that died, a piece of it took root in my heart, and I want to honor his life, dream, and vision and be faithful to it. I want to remember every day that people I may never meet or know may need me – as I needed Black Elk – to use my voice, speak my truth, and tell my story… perhaps starting with this one about Black Elk himself… and I want, in my own way, to stand up for his/my dream and all that means.

On that very first fast in 1980, I received my name – Sparrow – and with it, a task and responsibility to sing a beautiful song as purely and clearly as I can. I need to do that to be faithful and worthy of all that’s been given to me.

     ~ Sparrow Hart, July 2021

“And while I stood there, I saw more than I can tell and understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.” — Black Elk Speaks

** On August 11, 2016, the US renamed Harney Peak, the highest point in South Dakota, Black Elk Peak in honor of Black Elk and in recognition of the significance of the mountain to the native people.