Though he was too young and too small to partake in much of the fighting, he did perform his first scalping and collected guns, ammunition, and clothing from dead and dying soldiers. Black Elk sensed something terrible was coming prior to the battle. Custer’s Seventh Cavalry attacked late on that June afternoon, initiating a battle of intense shooting and close combat. As tensions rose, Lakota, Dakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho bands gathered and united under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. The Lakota were not willing to lose even more land to Euro-Americans and refused to surrender the land to the U.S. To make matters worse, Custer’s expedition reported the discovery of gold in the Black Hills, and the following year more than 800 miners illegally prospected in the area. This violated the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which designated the Black Hills as Lakota land. George Armstrong Custer (known to the Lakota as Pahuska, or Long Hair) led an Army expedition through the Black Hills of South Dakota to scout a location for a military post. On June 25, 1876, when Black Elk was 12 years old, the stage was set for one of the most notable battles in U.S. The Battle of the Greasy Grass (The Battle of the Little Bighorn) He kept his vision secret for several years, allowing its meaning to reveal itself as he matured into a young man. At the end of the vision he returned to his body and recovered.
Black elk speaks series#
Through a series of events, Black Elk believed he gained not only power, but also the ability to heal. They each offered him gifts that bestowed power, including a pipestone pipe. In this vision, he met with a council of the Six Grand-fathers representing the four cardinal directions as well as the earth and sky. He began having visions at only five years old but became very sick during the summer of his ninth year and saw the vision that would set him on his path to becoming a holy man. Throughout his childhood, he witnessed a changing landscape in his homeland. He was the fourth man in his family to go by the name Black Elk.
He had five sisters and one brother and was a second cousin to respected war leader Crazy Horse. Black Elk was likely born in December 1863 along the Little Powder River in what later became Wyoming.