Advent with Black Elk: The Animals Talk at Midnight

Chapters 12 and 13: “Grandmother’s Land” and “The Compelling Fear” “While I was lying there in a bison robe, a coyote began to howl not far off, and suddenly I knew it was saying something. It was not making words, but it said something plainer than words…” (94) “…Father, I have heard a coyote say […]

Advent with Black Elk: “A Youth Minister in North Dakota”

Chapter 11: The Killing of Crazy Horse “[Crazy Horse] was brave and good and wise. He never wanted anything but to save his people, and he fought the Wasichus only when they came to kill us in our own country. He was only thirty years old. They could not kill him in battle. They had […]

Advent with Black Elk: Theodicy in the Rain

Chapter 10: Walking the Black Road In this chapter, Black Elk laments the signing of the 1876 Black Hills Agreement, in which Lakota chiefs and headmen were intimidated into signing an agreement that not only ceded the Black Hills but also all claims to lands outside the Great Sioux Reservation. “News came to us here […]

Advent with Black Elk: The Bear Society

Chapters 8 and 9: The Fight with Three Stars and The Rubbing Out of Long Hair In these two chapters, Black Elk recounts the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. As I mentioned in a previous post, this Battle is also known as the Battle of the Greasy Grass to the Lakota and as Custer’s […]

Advent with Black Elk: The Stone from the Spirit World

Chapter 7: Wasichus in the Hills In this chapter, Black Elk describes his relative Crazy Horse, who also had a mystical vision as a young boy. He said, “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 […]

Advent with Black Elk: A Modern-Day Magnificat

Chapter 6: High Horse’s Courting In this chapter, Black Elk describes the universal human experiences of young love, infatuation and courting. He talks about seeing a young girl that looks so beautiful that a young man starts to feel sick whenever he thinks about her (42). He also talks about feeling so nervous in […]

Advent with Black Elk: Finding Freedom in Your Belovedness

Chapter 5: At the Soldier’s Town “Whenever a thunderstorm was coming I felt happy, as though somebody were coming to visit me” (38) “If we caught a little fish, we would kiss it and throw it back” (40) … My reflections on this chapter take the form of a homily that I preached at […]

Advent with Black Elk: A Relative to the Birds

Chapter 4: The Bison Hunt After his vision, Black Elk says he felt “homesick for the place where [he] had been” in his vision. He also felt more connected to all other living things. He says, “There was a bush and a little bird sitting in it; but just as I was going to shoot, […]

Advent with Black Elk: Your Grandfathers are Calling You

Chapter 3: The Great Vision During a life-threatening illness as a child, Black Elk had a series of visions in which his ancestors appeared to him, saying “Hurry! Come! Your Grandfathers are calling you!” In these visions, Black Elk witnessed spotted eagles fluttering on peace pipes, ancestors transforming into free-wheeling white geese, bright red […]