Black Elk was born in December 1863 on the Little Powder River, west of present-day South Dakota. He was the son of the elder Black Elk and White Cow Sees Woman. Black Elk was the fourth person in his family in as many generations to bear this name.
———Black Elk was a man seasoned with a lifetime of idiosyncrasies. He experienced the tail end of the U.S. and Sioux wars and the beginnings of U.S. oppressive policies toward his people. He also lived during the early reservation period, before the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 took full effect. He was three years old when the Fetterman Battle was fought, five years old during the signing of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, not quite a teenager during the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and a young man of twenty-seven when Chief Big Foot and his band was massacred at Wounded Knee Creek in December 1890. This latter event occurred just eight miles from where Black Elk made his home in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He spoke carefully of these events in interviews with the poet John G. Neihardt.
———During Black Elk's young adulthood, missionaries attempted to convert the Oglala Lakotas to Christianity, and not many escaped the intense measures inflicted upon those who resisted. Black Elk was no exception. He attempted to understand Christianity after he was subjugated to it, and was baptized Nicholas Black Elk on December 6, 1904, at the Holy Rosary Mission near present-day Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Although the role of staunch Catholic was forced upon him, he played it well to appease his oppressors.
———Black Elk's Lakota spirituality remained strong throughout his life. He was part of the underground traditional religious movement, which began shortly after the U.S. government banned native religious practices. These underground activities became a vital part of his life, as did his visible life as a staunch Catholic. He mastered both, but he feared that U.S. policies would overcome the Lakota Nation and destroy his community's identity. Many of the Lakota traditional holy men and healers of that time shared that basic philosophy. Some chose to record the Lakotas' sacred knowledge and information via non-Indian writers in the hopes of preserving it for future generations of Lakota people.
———Remarkably, Black Elk committed himself to this task. During the summer of 1930 he dictated his life story to John Neihardt, and the resulting book, Black Elk Speaks, appeared in 1932. Reprinted many times, the work was widely circulated and read by the general public. The positive aspect of his decision to go public was that his story offered an understanding of the history of his people and the sense of hope for the future not only of the Lakotas, but for all mankind.
———Black Elk's vision eventually became a message to the Lakota Nation — a warning that, should the Lakota people cross over into total assimilation and acculturation, they would lose their rich traditions and cease to exist as a unique nation. This message was evident in his final words, arranged by Neihardt but spoken by Black Elk: "There is no center any longer, and the sacred tree is dead."
———As an elder, Black Elk entertained the general public in the summer months by reenacting the traditional Lakota life at Duhamel's Sioux Indian Pageant in the Black Hills. This was his means to informing them of Lakota history and also of earning money during the Great Depression. The remainder of his time was spent with his family and friends on the Pine Ridge Reservation, where he often served as guest speaker at various gatherings.
———The passage of an Indian Religious Freedom Act in 1978 lifted the fear of federal prosecution and allowed the Lakota Nation free expression and open practice of its centuries-old religion. The combination of this legislation and the popularity of Black Elk's teaching created a renaissance of Lakota spirituality. This new movement has resulted in decreased membership in Christian faiths and declined attendance of Lakotas at Christian services across the reservation. In attempts to maintain and gain membership, some Christian churches have incorporated minimal Lakota traditions, but the move toward true Lakota traditional spirituality has continued to grow, particularly across the younger generation.
———The movement of current generations of Lakota people, inspired by Black Elk's words, is in reverse the process that, within a century, transformed their culture. The first step toward the regeneration of the culture has involved a psychological healing from a country of oppression, in addition to a relearning of Lakota identity. Black Elk's warnings about eventual genocide have been heeded.
———Black Elk's legacy is that of courage and inspiration to the Lakota Nation. He provided leadership in the acceptance of Christianity for a peaceful coexistence with the dominant society while simultaneously remaining a Lakota traditionalist at heart.
———Black Elk lived through a trying and tumultuous period of Lakota history. One can change the appearance of a man and have him act in a prescribed manner in the shadows of oppression, but one cannot change the thousands of years of ingrained, culturally fostered spirituality that can be found only in a man's heart and mind.

KAREN D. LONE HILL (Oglala Lakota)
Oglala Lakota College
Kyle, South Dakota