Lakota medicine man (1863-1950)
If the vision was true and mighty, as I know, it is true and mighty yet; for such things are of the spirit, and it is in the darkness of their eyes that men get lost.
NICHOLAS BLACK ELK
Black Elk Speaks
This center which is here, but which we know is really everywhere, is Wakan-Tanka.
NICHOLAS BLACK ELK
The Sacred Pipe
Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I 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.
NICHOLAS BLACK ELK
Black Elk Speaks
Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people flourished.
NICHOLAS BLACK ELK
Black Elk Speaks
You have noticed that truth comes into this world with two faces. One is sad with suffering, and the other laughs; but it is the same face, laughing or weeping.
NICHOLAS BLACK ELK
Black Elk Speaks
The boys of my people began very young to learn the ways of men, and no one taught us; we just learned by doing what we saw, and we were warriors at a time when boys now are like girls.
NICHOLAS BLACK ELK
Black Elk Speaks
Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking.
NICHOLAS BLACK ELK
Black Elk Speaks
And as he spoke of understanding, I looked up and saw the rainbow leap with flames of many colors over me.
NICHOLAS BLACK ELK
Black Elk Speaks
Crazy Horse dreamed and went into the world where there is nothing but the spirits of all things. That is the real world that is behind this one, and everything we see here is something like a shadow from that one. He was on his horse in that world, and the horse and himself on it and the trees and the grass and the stones and everything were made of spirit, and nothing was hard, and everything seemed to float. His horse was standing still there, and yet it danced around like a horse made only of shadow, and that is how he got his name, which does not mean that his horse was crazy or wild, but that in his vision it danced around in that queer way.
NICHOLAS BLACK ELK
Black Elk Speaks
He was the chief of all the horses; and when he snorted, it was a flash of lightning and his eyes were like the sunset star.
NICHOLAS BLACK ELK
Black Elk Speaks
My bay had lightning stripes all over him and his mane was cloud. And when I breathed, my breath was lightning.
NICHOLAS BLACK ELK
Black Elk Speaks
When a vision comes from the thunder beings of the West, it comes with terror like a thunder storm; but when the storm of vision has passed, the world is greener and happier; for wherever the truth of vision comes upon the world, it is like a rain.
NICHOLAS BLACK ELK
Black Elk Speaks
I looked below and saw my people there, and all were well and happy except one, and he was lying like the dead -- and that one was myself.
NICHOLAS BLACK ELK
Black Elk Speaks
Once we were happy in our own country and we were seldom hungry, for then the two-leggeds and the four-leggeds lived together like relatives, and there was plenty for them and for us. But the Wasichus came, and they have made little islands for us and other little islands for the four-leggeds, and always these islands are becoming smaller, for around them surges the gnawing flood of the Wasichu; and it is dirty with lies and greed.
NICHOLAS BLACK ELK
Black Elk Speaks
The power of a thing or an act is in the meaning and the understanding.
NICHOLAS BLACK ELK
The Sacred Pipe
The Great Spirit is everywhere; He hears whatever is in our minds and our hearts, and it is not necessary to speak to Him in a loud voice.
NICHOLAS BLACK ELK
The Sacred Pipe
It is the story of all life that is holy and is good to tell, and of us two-leggeds sharing in it with the four-leggeds and the wings of the air and all green things; for these are children of one mother and their father is one Spirit.
NICHOLAS BLACK ELK
Black Elk Speaks
This, then, is not the tale of a great hunter or of a great warrior, or of a great traveler, although I have made much meat in my time and fought for my people both as a boy and man, and have gone far and seen strange lands and men. So also have many others done, and better than I. These things I shall remember by the way, and often they may seem to be the very tale itself, as when I was living them in happiness and sorrow. But now that I can see it all as from a lonely hilltop, I know it was the story of a mighty vision given to a man too weak to use it; of a holy tree that should have flourished in a people's heart with flowers and singing birds, and now is withered; and of a people's dream that died in bloody snow.
NICHOLAS BLACK ELK
Black Elk Speaks
I can remember the Winter of the Hundred Slain as a man may remember some bad dream he dreamed when he was little, but I cannot tell just how much I heard when I was bigger and how much I understood when I was little. It is like some fearful thing in a fog, for it was a time when everything seemed troubled and afraid.
NICHOLAS BLACK ELK
Black Elk Speaks
My friend, I am going to tell you the story of my life, as you wish; and if it were only the story of my life I think I would not tell it; for what is one man that he should make much of his winters, even when they bend him like a heavy snow?
NICHOLAS BLACK ELK
Black Elk Speaks