Black Elk

Black Elk was born in December of 1863 in South Dakota. When Black Elk was nine years old he almost died from a terrible illness. He then had the "great vision" that sent him to the center of the Lakota world where he saw the Great Mysteriousness, also known as Wakan Tanka. For the first thirty years of his life, he was an Oglala, Lakota medicine man. When he was 12 years old he saw Custer's last stand at the Battle of Little Horn (1876) and was injured at the Wounded Knee Massacre (1890). In 1892, Black Elk married his first wife, Kattie War Bonnett. They had three sons. Kattie died in 1903. Black Elk's conversion to Catholocism came in 1904 when he was sent to do a healing ceremony for a sick child. There was a Catholic missioner there that gave the child his last rites and saw Black Elk. The missioner was angry and threw Black Elk's props out of the tent. Black Elk decided then that the white God is more powerful. During the same year, he was baptized and took the name Nicholas. In 1906, he married his second wife, Anna Brings White, who gave him two sons and a daughter.

After Black Elk's conversion, he became a catechist and spread the Word of God to the Native Americans. At first he was ridiculed by many Native Americans until they became the ones that he would convert to Christianity. Black Elk used a picture cathecism which was a strip of paper that showed Creation at the bottom and Heaven at the top. After his second wife died in 1941, he settled down and entertained tourists during the summer. Throughout his life he had suffered from tuberculosis. In 1948, Black Elk had a slight stroke and was in a hospital. He would be confined to a wheelchair, slightly paralyzed, and loss odf sight for the rest of his life. Black Elk died on August 17, 1950. Before he died, Black Elk had interviews with John Neihardt and told him about his life. A book would be published called, "Black Elk Speaks" in 1932, which has become an internationally-known book. Black Elk will be remembered as a man who not only help his own people's beliefs, but influenced Christian beliefs that we see today.