The Wounded Knee Massacre is presented in all of its devastating detail. The listener cannot help but be moved as the soldiers massacre women and children in their attempt to simply eliminate the "Indian Problem" by eliminating the Indians.
Most listeners will already be familiar with the text that comprises Black Elk Speaks, will know that it comes to us thanks to the Nebraska poet and historian, John G, Neihardt, and will realize that the final text is redacted from hours of interviews with the Oglala Sioux medicine man, Black Elk. The text is both a people's scripture, and its history of defeat. Scholars have struggled with the text in an attempt to discern what is original Black Elk and what is added by the compiler. Neihardt interviewed Black Elk whose nephew provided an immediate translation into English which was transcribed in shorthand by Neihardt's daughter and then written up by Neihardt.
The scriptural aspects of the text include descriptions of visions that Black Elk had as a child which predict future events and charge him with a hero's task of trying to return power to his people, as well as miracles of healing and manipulating nature. These stories are like all myths from all cultures: myth is always used to interpret reality, to read the physical and psychological world in a non-rational way usually employing a binary aspect: world and other world, male and female, living and dead, good and evil, gods and people. Black Elk struggles throughout in an attempt to understand just what his vision means. A myth is a story about something that never happened but is always true.
The history presented here covers the defeat of the Plains Indians by the US Army, the violent change from nomadic life to life on the reservation, and the death of a culture as we watch it go from a way of life to a Wild West show to be presented in large cities. Black Elk's life spans this historical period and his status as a medicine man provides him with the knowledge of ritual and prayer that informs his historical recollections. We learn through his stories the details of the important religious dances of his tribe. Black Elk performs healing miracles, has visions of another world, controls nature, and fights for his people just as all cultural heroes do.
Scott Peterson reads the text with skill and power. Just listen with attention and you will find yourself transported into the world of Black Elk and you will be delighted by his voice as he speaks. The overpowering feeling one has is that all stories are the same, no matter the cultural source.
© 2008 Bob Lane
Bob Lane is a retired professor of literature and philosophy who is currently a Research Associate at Vancouver Island University.