Research Article: Black Elk Speaks

Black Elk Speaks

by John Neihardt

Acollaborative effort, Black Elk Speaks was the result of a series of interviews between Nick Black Elk, an American Indian from a Sioux tribe, and John Neihardt, a white poet. Black Elk, a holy man who fought in the Indian wars of the late 1800s, struggled throughout his life with the firm belief that he was supposed to save his people from the encroachment of white settlers. Neihardt wrote the narrative, which is about Black Elk's early years, in the first person, as if the words were spoken by Black Elk himself. Neihardt also added information from his own research and included passages that are represented as the words of other American Indian leaders.

Events in History at the Time the Narrative Takes Place

The Teton Sioux. Divided into various groups, the Sioux nation occupied a large portion of the Great Plains during the 1800s. Black Elk belonged to the Teton Sioux, a nation of seven tribes that included the...
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