[Black Elk Speaks] is told in language that suggests Indian idiom, as in Neihardt's Omaha stories. Short sentences, simple syntax and connective words, Indian expressions ("Yellow metal" for "gold"; "four-leggeds" for "horses"; "horse-backs" for "horses and riders") created the impression of Indian speech so well that some critics mistakenly assumed Neihardt had simply typed up Enid's notes verbatim, a notion that irritated as much as it amused him. As in the Cycle, the simple surface structure is deceptive; much of the complexity of the style comes from the use of apparently concrete statements that are actually abstract and enthymemic…. An interesting stylistic feature is Neihardt's frequent dependence on flattened adjectives like good and bad for a double effect: they suggest the limitations of the Sioux vocabulary, but more important, they reflect by understatement the stoic endurance of the Indians. "The good days before the trouble began," for example, and "It was a very bad winter for us and we are all sad," are more than cliché; they are understated to imply the particulars of suffering from cold, hunger, and fear. Closing the story with Black Elk's prayer is dramatic; in the dignity and pathos of the old man, Neihardt epitomizes the tragedy of the Indian people. (p. 175)
Lucile F. Aly, in her John G. Neihardt: A Critical Biography, Rodopi, 1977, 307 p.
