Black Elk Speaks__chapter one__RARE BOOK

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Chapter one.
The Offering of the Pipe.

RARE BOOK.

Shaman of the Lakota Oglala tribe (South Dakota, USA) Black Elk - will tell about the traditions and the spiritual world of his people.
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The famous life story of the Lakota healer and visionary, Nicholas Black Elk.

Widely hailed as a spiritual classic, this inspirational and unfailingly powerful story reveals the life and visions of the Lakota healer Nicholas Black Elk (1863–1950) and the tragic history of his Sioux people during the epic closing decades of the Old West. In 1930, the aging Black Elk met a kindred spirit, the famed poet, writer, and critic John G. Neihardt (1881–1973) on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The Lakota elder chose Neihardt to share his visions and life with the world. Neihardt understood and today Black Elk is known to all.

Black Elk’s remarkable great vision came to him during a time of decimation and loss, when outsiders were stealing the Lakotas’ land, slaughtering buffalo, and threatening their age-old way of life. As Black Elk remembers all too well, the Lakotas, led by such legendary men as Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, fought unceasingly for their freedom, winning a world-renowned victory at the Little Bighorn and suffering unspeakable losses at Wounded Knee.


Black Elk Speaks however is more than the epic history of a valiant Native nation. It is beloved as a spiritual classic because of John Neihardt’s sensitivity to Black Elk’s resounding vision of the wholeness of earth, her creatures, and all of humanity. Black Elk Speaks is a once-in-a-lifetime read: the moving story of a young Lakota boy before the reservation years, the unforgettable history of an American Indian nation, and an enduring spiritual message for us all.
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EXPLANATION:

1) VISION.
Vision - According to many American Indian tribes, the revelation received in dreams, during prayers, was crucial in life. According to him, the further behavior of a person was determined, the fate of the tribe was predicted. For youths who reached the age of majority, it was considered imperative to acquire their own vision. They went further from the camp and fasted and prayed in solitude for several days in a row, trying to induce a vision. The main part of the vision was a patron spirit in the form of some animal, bird, sometimes an object or a mystical person. This vision and the patron spirit became the Indian's talisman, who guarded him in the days of peace and war.
2) TREE OF LIFE.
Sacred tree - in the cosmology of the Lakota Oglala Indians, like many other primitive peoples, the world was represented as a flat circle, which is symbolically indicated by a hoop; in the center of it was the Sacred Tree, marking the center of the world. It symbolized the act of creation, fertility, the prosperity of the people (if it turned green) and vice versa, decline (if it dried up). The broken sacred circle symbolized the decline of the world.
3) SACRED PIPE.
Pipe - pipe and tobacco had ritual significance among the Indians. The smoking of a sacred pipe was accompanied by the end of conflicts between tribes, and various rituals related to both military and peaceful life were preceded and accompanied.
4)FOUR.
Four is the magic number of the Indians (Four directions of the compass, fourfold appeals to spirits, fourfold actions and repetitions of lines in prayer songs). The symbolism associated with each of the cardinal points had a very developed character among the prairie tribes.
5) SCOUTS.
Scouts - among prairie tribes, whose economic cycle depended on the movement of buffalo herds, special pathfinders were sent to search and observe the buffalo.
6) TEPEE.
Tepee - from "te", to live and "pee", used for - (Lakota) the conical dwelling of the nomadic Prairie Indians. Buffalo-hide teepees were constructed from about 20 poles, 25 feet long, which were set in a circle and tied with straps at the top. About 15-18 skins were used to cover one tipi. The outside was decorated with ceremonial images - scenes from the life and military exploits of the owner. The entrance was most often located on the east side, since the east symbolized life and warmth.
7) WHITE BISON.
White bison - the skin of an albino bison had a sacred meaning among the prairie tribes, especially among the Lakota, for whom the white bison was a mythological cultural hero.
8) GREAT SPIRIT.
Great Spirit - the Indians did not have monotheism, therefore it is illegal to equate the Christian god and the Great Spirit. In the Lakota language, the Great Mystery (Wakonta, Wakantanka) is a combination of sacred forces, often of the four cardinal points, heaven and earth. However, under the influence of missionaries, in the course of the disintegration of the tribal system, the rudiments of monotheism began to form among the Indians.
9) HECHETU ELO.
Hechetu elo - Truly so! (in Lakota language)