Customer Reviews

Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a mild revisionist biography of Black Elk. The account has a definite ring of truth. The book received the *Alpha Sigma Nu Award* in 1994. Based on extensive ethnohistorical research of archival sources and extensive interviews with the daughter of Black Elk, author Steltenkamp (who has a Ph.D. in anthropology) shows that many of the biographies of Black Elk are highly mythologized. Most interesting, it turns out that Black Elk was a committed Catholic and Christian missionary to his own people for the last 46 years of his life (he died in 1950 at about age 90). Why did the previous biographers fail to tell that? Why keep secret that Black Elk was a Christian? Steltenkamp concludes that it would have compromised his Indianness. For example, John Neihardt, who wrote the classic biography *Black Elk Speaks* (1932)--which I personally read several times by the time I had graduated from high school in 1953--avoided the issue by focusing on Black Elk's 19th century life. (Black Elk participated as a teenager in the Custer Massacre and witnessed the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee.) Neihardt instead "highlighted 'the end of the trail' and 'vanishing American' themes" (19, xiv). Steltenkamp reviews the work of the Jesuit missionaries among the Lakota in a good light. He leads his reader to understand the lay public's bias against missionaries, seeing them as part of the ethnocide of the Lakota, and how the mythological accounts of Black Elk, the "traditionalist who will lead his people back to cultural revival," supports this view. But of course if Black Elk was a Christian trying to lead his people into American Catholicism, this would ruin everything. Like the famous Chief Seattle (see the July 1993 issue of Reader's Digest), Black Elk was used to perpetuate false romantic myths of Noble Savages. key words: missiology, ecological Noble Savage, revisionism, myth of primitive harmony, New Ageism, idealization of primitivity

"Black Elk - Holy Man of The Oglala" by Michael F. Steltenkamp is a most fascinating little treasure.

You may "think" that you know something about Black Elk (perhaps from "Black Elk Speaks" and other books about him, but Steltenkamp presents "Nicholas Black Elk" as he lived more than two thirds of his life: as a Catholic catechist and Christian community leader.

It is so inspiring to see how this "holy man" (and I believe "Saint" , though not canonized by the Church) interpreted the religion of the native Americans into a proleptic vision of the arrival of Jesus Christ and the christian faith.

and even more inspiring is to read of how this man truly lived that faith day to day himself. i know how impressed i was by one simple photgrpah of Nicholas Black Elk standing with a group and holdong his rosary beads . . .proud but devout.

Some "pseudo-scholars" may try to down-play the true religious piety of this Sioux "holy man" by claiming it was a mere ruse to adapt to the "power" of the occupying white invaders . . . but read the book and see that those who actually knew him knew better.


He walked miles praying his rosary to go and lead funeral services (though only a catechist he served almost in the role of "deacon"). . . He even had the experience of a miracle attributed to the intercession of Saint Therese of Lisieux healing his little "Nicholas" and saving the boys life when he asked that a prayer be said to saint Therese.

And as he predicted there were even signs in the night sky the night he passed away into eternity.

I recommend that you get a copy of this book and read it and then re-read it again and again. You will gain a new spiritual friend and companion on your own pilgrimage journey through this world and through your life. And it sure is nice to have a "holy man' and a kindly man like Nicholas Black Elk praying for you and with you in heaven . . . and to inspire you by his own life story.

Whether the Church he loved ever gets around to enrolling him with the "official saints" or not, he will always be on my own scroll of saints when i pray. And i suspect if you read this book, he will be on yours as well. :)

This book relays the last "untold" years of Black Elk's life as a Holy Man, as told to the author by Lucy Looks Twice, Black Elk's daughter. Although Black Elk's headstone states his birth as 1850, he considers his birthdate to be December 6, 1904, feast of St. Nicholas, which was the day he was baptized and his name became Nicholas Black Elk. A wonderful first hand account by Michael Steltenkamp of Black Elk. A must to read.

Steltenkamp does a superb job of describing Black Elk's years as a devout Catholic -- Black Elk converted in 1904 and remained a praying Christian until his death in 1950 -- and demonstrating that the Lakota holy man's Christianity was an organic continuation of his earlier years as a Lakota traditionalist. This book thus provides a necessary complement to Black Elk Speaks, which avoids discussing the second half of Black Elk's life. Not to be missed by anyone who wants to learn about the real Black Elk -- and thus give a great saint and prophet his due.

Steltenkamp continues the tradition of looking at Indians through the lens of Christian prejudice. The book neglects to explore the fact that Black Elk's daughter, Lucy, was kept from any knowledge of Nick Black Elk's medicine training and practice. Nor does the text examine the shame and shock inducing behavior of the Christian priest who barged into the middle of Black Elk's healing of a patient, discarding the healer's tools, ridiculing him and depriving the patient of healing, literally yanking him out of practice, nor the other priests who continued to badger this medicine man, (a man revered by his people) until he gave in for the safety of his family. The book also fails to give the details behind the fact that Lucy's brother was knowledgeble about and supportive of Nick's practice as a medicine man. For those who are willing to give the text a close reading, you'll see how the author unwittingly reveals the methods of Christian clerics' destruction of an ancient culture, the results of that destruction, and how Nick Black Elk, deposed and put in service of the priests, was at least able to tap their pockets and provide for his family. As an example of yet another writer's Christian bias toward the Indians with examples of their brainwashing and coercion, so thorough, that even the child of this famous healer was kept in the dark about the truth of her own father, this book is worth a read.

I was required to read an excerpt of Neihardt's work on Black Elk. Choosing, as usual, to go beyond the scope of my text, I searched carefully for a meaningful book about Black Elk, and this was certainly it! I was so fascinated by the fact that the two most popular books written about Black Elk "conveniently" didn't address the last 60 years of his life, and failed to mention that he had totally rejected his "Holy Man" status in favor of embracing Catholicism. How fortunate we are that the author, Michael Steltenkamp, connected with Black Elk's only surviving daughter and was able, at her insistence, to set the record straight. Had this not occurred, we would likely still buy into the fallacies of other, earlier publications touted as the authorotative sources not only about Black Elk's life, but holding his life as they portrayed it as the standard for Native Americans! We learn that Black Elk was NOT a teary eyed, old Indian, pining away for pre-reservation days, awaiting death at any moment, but that he lived, and lived FULLY, embracing the new world around him. While this portrayal is probably not when Indian Movement Advocates want to acknowledge, it is a fair, balanced, accurate portrayal, carefully researched and corroborated. My appreciation to Mr. Steltenkamp for his diligence in undertaking this project. This word was extremely stimulating and thought provoking.

One of the "classics" of American Indian thought is Black Elk Speaks, routinely cited by those seeking to understand Native American religion. Young people exposed to the likes of "Dances With Wolves" need a more authentic perspective than that derived from film stereotypes. (Parenthetically, the label "Native American"--currently mandatory for enforcers of "political correctness"--rarely concerns reservation residents, who call themselves "Indians" or, to be truly correct, tribal names such as "Sioux").
Anyway, I have always encouraged interested students to read Black Elk Speaks, along with its sequel, The Sacred Pipe, to learn something about Sioux (or, even more accurately, Lakota) culture. A witness of the massacre at Wounded Knee, a performer in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, Black Elk tells a story which helps us understand Native America. The portrait painted in these books is, almost exclusively, that of a highly traditional tribal "holy man." Like lots of others, I'd assumed this was the real Black Elk.
Now Michael F. Steltenkamp, in Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, c. 1993) enlarges our understanding of the man by documenting his resolute commitment to Christianity, a truth studiously ignored by John Neihardt, the editor/author of Black Elk Speaks, the professor from the University of Missouri who interviewed Black Elk during the 1920's. Given the anti-Christian bias of academia, it's unlikely Steltenkamp's volume will replace Neihardt's, but it should at least be consulted by those who care for the truth.
The editor/author of The Sacred Pipe, Joseph Epes Brown, more sensitive to this than Neihardt, confessed: "I have felt it improper that this [the Christian] phase of his life was never presented either by Neihardt or indeed by myself. I suppose somehow it was thought this Christian participation compromised his 'Indianness,' but I do not see it this way and think it time that the record was set straight" (p. xx). Unlike Brown and Neihardt, Steltenkamp lived for years among the Oglala, learned the Lakota language, and spent hours talking with one of Black Elk's daughters, who was concerned with the false stereotype of her father portrayed in books. To those who knew him, Black Elk's prestige stemmed not from his knowledge of traditional religion, nor from the books attributed to him, but from his "very active involvement with priests in establishing Catholicism among his people" (p. xvii).
Black Elk's daughter, Lucy, disliked the image of her father rendered in Black Elk Speaks and The Sacred Pipe and "was disappointed that her father was now being misunderstood and that people were using the material from his books in a way he never intended" (p. xx). As she remembered her father, "He always said to me, 'To live close to God is more enjoyable than to live easy--with all the pleasures and riches--because such things never will reach to heaven. One thing is never lie, too, because you will lose all your honesty toward God and your neighbors" (p. 75). So Steltenkamp seeks to satisfy Lucy's request, to rectify the record.
He first helps us understand Black Elk's family background as well as some of the essentials of Lakota culture, a people who "thought their continued survival was as contingent upon a relationship with the Sacred as it was upon the forces they faced in everyday profane life" (p. 15). Reared in the ways of his people, devoutly religious and directed by the visions detailed in his well-known books, Black Elk sincerely embraced the Christian faith at the turn of the century.
Following his conversion, he became a "catechist" and spent much time helping the Roman Catholic missionary effort among his people, visiting people, teaching classes, baptizing when necessary. As one of his friends, John Lone Goose, recalled, "He never talked about the old ways. All he talked about was the Bible and Christ. I was with him most of the time, and I remember what he taught. He taught the name of Christ to Indians who didn't know it. The old people, the young people, the mixed blood, even the white man--everybody that comes to him, he teaches--from the Bible, from the catechist book, from his heart" (p. 54). Black Elk even expanded his efforts, helping do missionary work among other tribes--Arapahos, Winnebagos, Omahas. One priest credits him with leading as many as 400 people to Christ.
This Black Elk simply never appears in Black Elk Speaks! (How difficult it is to get at the truth of history!) Professor Neihardt came to the reservation to find material for the book about Indians which satisfied his own agenda. Father Placius Sialm, a missionary at Pine Ridge from 1901-1940, who knew Black Elk well, noted that "Nic Black Elk could have finished the book with a fine chapter of his conversion. But Neihardt did not want that. . . . Nic as Catholic did more for his people than as medicine man before. Nic was in his best years when he was converted and he knew that the Gospel was clearer than his dream" (p. 80).
The image of Black Elk, drawn by Neihardt, portraying what seems to be a despairing old man with no hope for his people, was, Father Sialm said, "one of the worst exploitations ever done to an honest Indian." Black Elk never approved it. Neihardt took his notes and wrote his book--never giving Black Elk a penny of the promised dividends! "It could," Sialm asserted, "fairly be put into the class of not only exploitation, but what is worse, of stealing--plagiarism--material for a book cleverly done, a kind of kidnapping the very words of a man . . . and translating them into a new language to disguise the fraud" (p. 81). Strong words!
In fact, Black Elk protested Neihardt's book and asked that he at least append a declaration which said: "In the last thirty years I am different from what the white man wrote about me. I am a Christian." He goes on to detail the essence and importance of his faith: "I know Whom I have believed and my faith is not vain" (p. 83). Looking back at his pre-Christian days, the era celebrated in Black Elk Speaks, he asserted that neither the dances nor the prayers of the traditional Lakota had the efficacy of the blood of Christ.
Neither Neihardt nor the publisher cared to honor Black Elk's request, so the book carried its flawed message to the world. In another letter, probably written by Lucy, Black Elk said: "I've quit all these pagan works. But he didn't mention this. Cash talks. So if they can't put this religion life in the last part of that book, also if he can't pay what he promised, I ask you my dear friends, that this book of my life will be null and void because I value my soul more than my body. I'm awful sorry for the mistake I made" (p. 85).
Perhaps, in Steltenkamp's book, the real "holy man of the Oglala" would find satisfaction. Just as scholars have disproved the oft-quoted environmental speek of Seattle, perhaps Black Elk will be more honestly portrayed henceforth. Steltenkamp carefully ties his subject's Lakota roots, his Indian perspectives, with his Christian faith. Indeed, many traditional Indians often found their religious aspirations perfectly fulfilled in Christ--just as Jews testify to being "completed" Jews, so Indians like Black Elk. Indeed, early on did Indians like Black Elk declared: "Of the White man's many customs, only his faith, the White man's beliefs about God's will, and how they act according to it, I wanted to understand. . . . So Lakota people, trust in God! Now all along I trust in God" (p. 161). So be it! What better message could sustain a man through the difficult days to come! He lived, and he died (in 1950) sustained by his Lord, Jesus Christ.

This book is the best book on Black Elk. It goes into the most detail about Black Elk including his religious background and his travels. It is wonderfully written and easy to read. If you want to know about Black Elk this is the book to read.

Michael F. Steltenkamps research of this widely researched Indian is a fascinating for lack of a better word. He shows the man's later coversion to Catholicism in the 60 years following "Black Elk Speaks." A great resource!