The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt

"The Sixth Grandfather" offers an annotated presentation of the raw transcripts of the testimony of the Lakota medicine man Black Elk to the poet and amateur ethnographer John Neihardt.These dialogs are better known by Neihardt's poeticized rendition in the book "Black Elk Speaks." However, the well-intentioned Neihardt introduced serious distortions into his version, and should be regarded with extreme caution.Black Elk lived the kind of life that no one would believe, if it were made up. Born to an Oglala Lakota family in Wyoming in the late nineteenth century, Black Elk lived a traditional life in camps pitched with tipis on the forests and plains, hunting buffalo and resisting the encroachment of white settlers in the region.At the age of nine, he fell into a coma for twelve days, during which time he experienced what he would subsequently call his "Great Vision," in which he traveled up into the sky and met with the Six Grandfathers, partial personifications of the Great Spirit who dwell in the six directions (north, south, east, west, up, and down). As he took leave of the Grandfathers, he gradually realized that the sixth grandfather, the lord of the earth below, was he himself.He awoke with the conviction that he had a sacred mandate and duty to restore his people to health and power, and spent the rest of his life with that vision as a spiritual and moral reference point, asking himself at various points along the way how important experiences fit into his vision, and filling him with the frequent anxiety that he was not fulfilling his charge.His vision is paradigmatic of the shamanic initiatory experience of great distribution, and were this book nothing more than an account of this extraordinary episode and how he viewed it at different stages of his life, the book would be an invaluable document.But the book is more - much more.Black Elk was fearless in his desire to know the world and to be a part of it, and his hunger for adventure brought him into close contact with a series of historical events of great importance. He was present at the Battle of Little Big Horn, and fought against Custer's army. He learned the Ghost Dance when it spread to the plains, and was at Wounded Knee, where again, he fought. He joined up with Buffalo Bill's Wild West tour, and, having never been off the range, traveled to New York City to perform for months to sell-out crowds at Madison Square Garden. Then he sailed across the sea, and was one of a handful of performers to dance before Queen Victoria at her Golden Jubilee.It is simply incredible, to read about all of these events described first-hand, from the perspective of a character you come to know and understand. He describes these events in a plain, declarative style, with alacrity and care.And it is moving - profoundly moving - to watch him as he struggles with the meanings of the incredible things he saw, and his role within events. It is heartbreaking to connect with his sense of sorrow as his people, and their way of life, and their relatives, the buffalo, are swept away by an infinite sea of white people.There aren't many books that I believe should pretty much be read by everyone, but this is one of them. It is a truly incredible experience.

Historical snippets

I didn't read this myself. It was requested by an inmate of Native American heritage that I help out. He said it's highly rated among other Native Americans he knows.

Black Elk Speaks I ordered the book for my friend Kayla. When I found out that she was writing a paper on American Indians, I insisted she read what I feel is one of the most amazing insights into a facet of the mind they, the American Indians know well; that of the Medicine Man, their Shaman. Black Elk Speaks opened my mind to a world I knew of only in reading other books on sages that have entered realities unknown to most of us, sages from other parts of the world. Our culture generally discourages any practice that helps an individual get beyond the mental confines of the world we know. In this book, we read about a people, in this case one man, that makes it his and their life-style or "Way" where the exception in the norm.Robert Yanasak

The Sixth Grandfather is the English translation of thoughts provided by Black Elk to John Neihardt, a mainstream American writer. Black Elk's interpretation of spiritual awakening is the most complete, the most profound, the most gripping, and the most beautiful expression of human awareness that I have ever encountered.John Neihardt edited these notes and published them as Black Elk Speaks. While that book can be a fascinating study of theological ideas, it distorts what Black Elk shared with John Neihardt. The Sixth Grandfather should be read multiple times as a window to a beautiful consciousness that should never be lost to mankind.

As with most books written by academics, it is a tedious read with footnotes ad nauseum. The reason I give it 5 stars is because of the subject matter being presented as spoken by the Sioux who were interviewed. The discussion of their religious beliefs, their culture that comes through these interviews of formally uneducated (but ultimately wise) men is a magnificent experience. Be patient in reading this book - the patience and the time is well worth the time and drudgery.

The most striking part of reading this book is learning that while Neihardt shaped Black Elk Speaks as a tragedy, Nicholas Black Elk himself had the hope that a revival of the spirit might emerge as others learned of his vision, a hope that may be in the process of coming to fruition.. I also was surprised to discover that Black Elk had been very active in the Catholic Church. May the Great Spirit be with us all.

This book is enlightening and a little sad at the same time. It's amazing the stuff people do to hurt others. We need more people in the world who are as connected to the Creator and the world around them as Black Elk was. This puts a lot of stuff in perspective. This is a good read, everyone should read this at some point in their lives.

This is now my favourite book

Wer Neihardts "Black Elk speaks" gelesen hat und nicht nur von der Weltsicht der Lakota Indianer und ihrem furchtbaren Schicksal berührt wurde, sondern auch von der Persönlichkeit Black Elks, der oder die wird sich für Black Elks eigene Worte interessieren bzw. für die Version, die Neihardts Tochter auf der Grundlage der Übersetzung von Black Elks Sohn erstellt hat. Das Buch ist aber auch für all diejenigen, die sich mit dem hybriden und problematischen ethnographischen Genre "Native Autobiography" beschäftigen, ein unschätzbares Dokument.

Quellenwerk zu Black Elk Speaks - Schwarzer Hirsch: Ich rufe mein VolkSehr interessantes Buch für alle, die sich mit Black Elk - oder wie er in Deutschland bekannt ist: Schwarzer Hirsch (falsche Übersetzung!) - befassen wollen. Für mich gehört dieses Buch zum Grundlagenwerk über Black Elk.Das Buch besteht vor allem aus 3 Teilen:1. Eine kurze Biographie über Black Elk. Das ist in sofern wichtig und interessant, da das Buch Black Elk Speaks" zwar den Anschein hat, als erzähle es den ganzen Lebensweg von Black Elk, aber fast unbemerkt viele Jahre seines Lebens ausklammert, die Zeiten nämlich, in denen Black Elk mit Buffalo Bill auf Wild West Show ging und vor allen aktiver Katholik war. Außerdem wird die Begegnung von Black Elk mit John Neihardt geschildert, der dann für Black Elk das Buch Black Elk Speaks" schrieb. Ebenso wird die Zeit nach dem Buch wiedergegeben, wo er in Historienspielen einen indianischen Schamanen spielt, oder auch die Begegnung mit Epes Brown, der dann für ihn das Buch Schwarzer Hirsch: Die Heilige Pfeife" schrieb.2. Die Begegnung mit John Neihardt und die Interviews, die dann später Grundlage für das Buch Black Elk Speaks wurden, werden geschildert und die Umstände und Problemsituation beschrieben.3. Der eigentliche Hauptteil des Buches, in dem die Scripte von Enid Neihardt, John Neihardts Tochter, die die Interviews stenographierte, als Quellenwerk veröffentlicht werden. Dazu gibt es noch eine Einleitung, die vor allem die Unterschiede der Großen Vision von Buch und Script herausarbeitet.Das Interessante des Buches macht wohl die Spannung aus, wie John Neihardt das, was Black Elk ihm erzählt, im Buch umsetzt. Wenn man dazu mit DeMaille überlegt, wie auch das weitere Leben Black Elks seinen Blick auf seine Vision und das freie Leben der Sioux beeinflusst, ist das Buch schon fast spannend.Auch dieses Buch gehört für mich zu den Klassikern über Black Elk, für alle Interessierten ein muss. Vor allem wenn man bedenkt, dass ja auch die deutsche Übersetzung veraltet und mit Sicherheit nicht frei von eigener Färbung ist, das sagt ja allein schon der Titel, der ja nicht nur den Namen falsch übersetzt, sondern auch den Gesamtsinn. Black Elk wollte ja seine Vision ALLEN Menschen erzählen, nicht nur seinem eigenen Volk!! Das hat Neihardt mit seiner Überschrift besser erkannt!Siehe auch meine weiteren Rezessionen, die immer wieder erweitert werden. Da gibt es unüblichere, aber interessante Bücher/Filme zu Black Elk und Native Americans.

The content of the book is without any doubt very significant for serious readers of Black Elk.The edition for Kindle is hardly readable because the book is written in a special font that is very hard to read.The single letters are not solid but break - they seem as if printed poorly.Readability is extremly bad — even with high resolution.It is not possible (!) to change the font in this book because it is an azw1/topaz ebook.I think: To make a book intentionally unreadable is nonsense!