Joe Jackson - Black Elk: The Life of an American Visionary

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As always, to Kathy and Nick

But if the vision was true and mighty, as I know, it is true and mighty yet; for such things are of the spirit, and it is in the darkness of their eyes that men get lost.

Black Elk, Black Elk Speaks

I have heard what the prophets said, that prophecy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.

Jeremiah 23:25

THE LAKOTA AND THEIR ALLIES

Big Foot: Leader of the Minneconjou band massacred at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1890.

Big Road: Leader of the Northern Oglala tiyospaye , or large family band, that included the Black Elks. He was named one of the Oglalas four Deciders prior to the Great Sioux War.

Black Elk (later Nicholas Black Elk, after his Catholic conversion): Oglala holy man, healer, yuwipi , and heyoka , who fought at the battles of the Little Bighorn and Wounded Knee and performed with Buffalo Bills Wild West. His collaboration with the Nebraska poet John Neihardt resulted in the 1932 Black Elk Speaks , a classic of American literature that scholars have called an American Indian Rosetta stone.

Black Elks father (Black Elk Sr. in the text): The third Black Elk in the Black Elk clan of bear healers. His famous son would be the fourth Black Elk.

Benjamin Black Elk: Black Elks only surviving son with his first wife, Katie War Bonnet. Ben Black Elk would serve as the Lakota-English translator during the interviews that produced Black Elk Speaks ; he would in time become the keeper of his fathers legacy and a famous presence in his own right at Mount Rushmore.

Lucy Black Elk: Black Elks daughter by his second wife, Anna Brings White. Her conversations with the Pine Ridge educator (and later Jesuit father) Michael Steltenkamp would reveal Black Elks career during the early 1900s as a Catholic missionary to other tribes and as a lay preacher, or catechist, well-known in Pine Ridge.

Black Road: The veteran Oglala medicine man to whom Black Elk first revealed his Great Vision and who prescribed as a cure the staging of the Horse Dance from that vision. By doing so, he set Black Elk on course to become one of the most important Oglala holy men during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Black Shawl: The first wife of Crazy Horse, mother of the doomed Kokipapi.

Anna Brings White: Black Elks second wife, and mother of Lucy Black Elk.

Chips: One of the most powerful and famous Oglala holy men of the period encompassing the Great Sioux War. The childhood friend of Crazy Horse and four years his elder, Chips would be Crazy Horses mentor during his spiritual quests and help interpret his famous dreams.

Crazy Horse: The famous Oglala war chief during the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Great Sioux War; equal in influence to Sitting Bull. Known to the Oglala as Tasunke Witko, he was Black Elks second cousin and a role model for him as a boy and young man.

Drinks Water: Apocalyptic Lakota prophet, also called Wooden Cup, who died about twenty years before the birth of Black Elk. His most famous prophecy foretold the arrival and dominion of a white nation from the east, whom he called Iktomi men.

Charles Alexander Eastman: Santee Dakota physician educated at Boston University, who served as the Pine Ridge Agencys main doctor during the Massacre at Wounded Knee.

Moses Flying Hawk: A veteran of the Great Sioux War. Flying Hawk served as John Neihardts interpreter when he first met Black Elk in August 1930.

Gall: Hunkpapa war chief during the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Galls two wives and several children were killed during Major Marcus Renos initial attack on the southeast end of the Great Camp.

Good Thunder: One of three Lakota delegates sent to meet Wovoka, the Ghost Dance Messiah, in 1890. Good Thunder was Black Elks uncle and would marry Black Elks mother after his fathers death. Good Thunder was one of the three main Ghost Dance priests at Pine Ridge, and Black Elk would become his chief lieutenant.

Keeps His Tipi: Black Elks maternal grandfather; possibly the closest to Black Elk of all his extended family. He helped the nine-year-old Black Elk navigate his resurrection from the eleven-day coma that resulted in his Great Vision and explained to his grandson the meaning of wasichu .

Kicking Bear: Crazy Horses lieutenant at the Little Bighorn and suspected killer of Agency clerk Frank Appleton. Kicking Bear was leader of the three main Ghost Dance priests, and his arrival at Standing Rock Agency precipitated the arrest and death of Sitting Bull.

Leggings Down (later Mary Leggings Down, after her conversion): Black Elks mother.

Little Big Man: Crazy Horses lieutenant, who turned against him at Camp Robinson.

One Side: Black Elks friend, fellow heyoka , and informal partner in his healing practice at Pine Ridge.

Charles Picket Pin: Also known as Red Cow. Became lost in Manchester with Black Elk and another Oglala performer from Buffalo Bills Wild West; all three missed the steamship taking the troupe back to New York. They went to London, were interrogated by police in probable connection with the Whitechapel Murders, and joined Mexican Joes Western Wilds of America.

Red Cloud: Oglala leader who led his people to victory against the U.S. Army in Red Clouds War, then led them through the transition into reservation life.

Runs in the Center: Black Elks half brother. At the beginning of the Reno Valley Fight, Black Elk chased after him with his forgotten gun, and instead found himself drawn into the battle.

Short Bull: One of the three principal Ghost Dance priests during the Sioux Messiah craze.

Sitting Bull: Hunkpapa leader and holy man whose vision of a U.S. Army defeat inspired his people to victory during the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Spotted Tail: Brul chief who became convinced of the futility of fighting the U.S. Army after a years internment at Fort Leavenworth, so instead devoted himself to peace and fighting for the rights of his tribe. The uncle of Crazy Horse.

Standing Bear (later Stephen Standing Bear, after his conversion): Black Elks Minneconjou cousin, who would be his verifier as he told John Neihardt of his life and Great Vision, and who would paint the original artwork for Black Elk Speaks .

Luther Standing Bear: Oglala author, actor, and chief, educated in the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, remembered today for his many books on Sioux life. One of the first Lakota to act in Hollywood.

Sweet Medicine: Cheyenne apocalyptic prophet who foresaw the conquest of his people by a good-looking people, with light hair and white skin.

They Are Afraid of Her (Kokipapi): Crazy Horses only child.

Katie War Bonnet: Black Elks first wife; mother of Ben Black Elk.

Worm: Crazy Horses father, related to the Black Elks. Like the senior Black Elk, he, too, was a medicine man, and he, too, passed his original family nameCrazy Horsedown to his more famous son before adopting the Lakota name Wagula, or Worm.