Black Elk Speaks

By Black Elk, John G. Neihardt,

Book cover of Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux

Book description

"If any great religious classic has emerged in this century or on this continent, it must certainly be judged in the company of "Black Elk Speaks"...The most important aspect of the book, however, is not its effect on the non-Indian populace who wished to learn something of the beliefs of…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Black Elk Speaks as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This book was my first portal into the North American Plains-Indian worldview.

It is a powerful narrative of a profoundly spiritual visionary that “has become a North American bible of all tribes,” writes Vine Deloria in his Introduction to the 1979 Bison Books edition.

“So important has this book become that one cannot today attend a meeting on Indian religion and hear a series of Indian speakers without recalling the exact parts of the book that lie behind contemporary efforts to inspire and clarify those beliefs that are ‘truly Indian.’”

It has also become the genre exemplar of American Indian…

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