![]() A policeman warns Good Thunder and Black Elk that they are going to be arrested. An agent tells the Indians camping near Pine Ridge that they may dance only three days every month and the rest of the time they must work for a living. The Indians move camp twice in reaction to reports that soldiers are marching on them. While dancing with the Brules on Cut Meat Creek, he has a vision of a flaming rainbow that says, "Remember this." Black Elk feels that he made a mistake in forsaking his great vision for the lesser ones he received while ghost dancing. Black Elk makes more holy shirts and dresses and distributes them. The Indians are still hungry and in despair. Like the bison hunt that Black Elk describes in the previous chapter, these are happy times for him because the Indians have not yet lost their traditional identity.The whites try to prevent the ghost dances, which continue in many places. ![]() During the time that Black Elk describes here, the Lakota still do the things that defined them as Indians, such as cutting tepee poles, fishing, and hunting. The white man's encroachment, however, and his diminishment of the bison herds to make way for the railroad, seriously threatens the freedom that the Indians enjoyed before they were relegated to the reservations. Black Elk's account of such pre-reservation experiences, when the Indians are still relatively free on the plains, is an especially valuable part of his narrative. During this time, Black Elk got used to the white soldiers at the fort, although, at first, he thought they looked sick. ![]() The Indians' stay near the fort is one of the last best times they had. Black Elk's attempts to learn spear fishing from Watanye make for a humorous, if not slightly ghoulish, anecdote: Watanye laughed until his mouth bled when Black Elk fell into the water. The Indians also have a kinship with the creatures of nature that the whites, who destroyed the bison herd, do not have. The Indian relationship with the environment does not allow waste, especially as compared with the habits of the white men making their way westward. The eagle always reminds him of the name the Grandfathers of his vision gave him - Eagle Wing Stretches.īlack Elk describes fishing with his friends, kissing the fish as they are caught, throwing back those that are too small to use. This conflict contributes to the developmental aspect of the story: How will Black Elk grow into his role as a visionary when he lives in the ordinary world? He is happy in the world of hunting, fishing, and children's games, but he received a higher call from his vision. Later, however, he gets a "queer" feeling when he hears the whistle of a spotted eagle and he feels once more back in the world of his vision. He says that whenever he hears thunder, which was part of his vision, he feels happy. Watanye's mouth was covered with sores that bled when he laughed.īlack Elk begins to feel a little more comfortable thinking about his vision. ![]() He tells his father that they need not pursue the deer because the deer will be brought to them, and that comes to pass his father kills two deer.ĭuring his time at Soldiers' Town, Watanye teaches Black Elk to spear fish. Red Cloud was a great chief, but he quit fighting after the treaty of 1868, which was five years before.īlack Elk goes deer hunting with his father and feels back in the world of his vision when he hears the whistle of a spotted eagle. At one point during their stay, soldiers threatened to punish the Indians because an Indian boy mischievously cut off the top of a flagpole at the fort, but Red Cloud intervened and made peace. He tells about playing with the other children on sleds made of bison jaws and ribs. Black Elk joined his relatives near Soldiers' Town, where he saw his first white man, and camped there all winter. Some Oglalas went to Fort Robinson (Soldiers' Town) others stayed behind with Crazy Horse, who wanted nothing to do with white men. The six Lakota bands (Ogalalas, Brules, Sans Arcs, Black Kettles, Hunkpapas, and Minneconjous) who camped together, scattered after the bison hunt. ![]()
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