Circuitous Journeys: Modern Spiritual Autobiography

6. Black Elk Speaks: A Century Later

Black Elk Speaks:zy A Century Later READING zyxwvutsrqp Black Elk zyxwvuts Spenks a century after its story ended at Wounded Knee raisesissues quite diEerent from those raised by other modernspiritual autobiographies. The primary problem for thereader is: what context to read it in? Some critics insist on placing the story solely within the historical culture of the 189Us, thus readingBlack Elk Speaks as another document(alongside Red Cloud’s speeches or letters fromgovernment agents) revealing the suppression of theSiouxculture by the American movement westward, expressed at its worst by the last episode of the book, the massacre ;it Wounded Knee in 1890 zyxw 0.Olson). Others focus on the context of the writing of Black Elk Speaks by Nebraskan poet John Neihardt in 1932, with the emphasis placed on distortions by the translator (Rice). Still other critics focus onthe change of the oral narrative from a redemptive epic to a tragic autobiography (P. Olson). Others concentrateon the omission of the ritual and eschatological purposes of Black Elk (Hollar),or on the shift from oral, public, and mythic narrative to written, private ,and historical document(Couser).Others emphasize the context of theextraordinary popular appeal of Black Elk Speaks in the 1 9 7 0 ~ ~ by showing its affinity with the “greeningof America” movementand its similarities withotherreligons (Sayre, Diloria ) zyxwvuts ’Julian Rice makes a very strong case againstNeihardt for distorting the transcripts of 1931 into Black Elk Spcnks. UsingNeihardt’slaterwritings as clues, especially 7716 Sorrgzyxwvutsrq qf the Mesrinlr, and pointing out the additions to the transcripts , Rice attempts to show thatNeihardtimposed a pattern of Christian universalismand a Platonicdualism on Black Elk’s Lakotaritualreligion. For Rice, the Lakota religon wastribalandparticularist (not universal), earth- and health-centered (not othelworldly), creation-based without a notion of orignal sin (not salvation-based), and eschatological through one’s descendants (not through personal immortality). Although Rice admits that Black Elk himself BLACK ELK zyxwvutsrq 163 While acknowledging the importance of these contextual studies , I will examinethe book throughthe literary lenses I have been using to read previous modern life stories. In particular, I will focus on: zyxwvu (0)thejimniqg zyxwvu devices used in zyxwv Black Elk Speaks to see how they bring out a special conflict between life stories within traditional culturesandthose withinmodern societies; (b) the stnictw-ul traits of modern spiritual autobiographies and their unexpected relevance to Black EJkzyxwvu Speaks; and (L-) the conclusions to be drawn about the untold story behind the text. THE FRAMING DEVICES OF BLACK ELK’S CIRCULAR JOURNEY Several commentators excoriate Neihardtfor shifting the context of Black Elk’s oral narrative from “ritual” to “autobiography” (Hollar, P. Olson). In fact, however, the opening chapter (“The Offering of the Pipe”) and the closing “Author’s Postscript” includeelaborate rituals. Althoughthepipe ritual is placed after three fictional paragraphs of autobiography created by Neihardt, it still occupies the place of prominence in the opening chapter. Evensome of the assertions of the fictional paragraphs merely anticipate what Black Elk actually says later in the text. For instance , the statementthat “all life zyxwv . . . is holy” and all people “are children of one mother and their father in one Spirit” is a paraphrase of Black Elk’s subsequent words. Yet, it must be admitted that Neihardt’s portrait of Black Elk as a recipient of “a mighty vision given to a man too weak touse it” is the poet’s own editolater in Tlre S m d Pipe (1947) showed manyparallelsbetween the Christianity he had adoptedandhisLakotanreligion, Rice finds none of thisin the 1931 transcript5 (whichwerepublished only in 1984 as 77re Sisth Grmldjnrlw). Because Neihardt imposed Christian salvation patterns and universalistic assumptions ? alongwith a Platonic dualistic worldview, on certain passages in zyxw Blnt-k Elk Spuks, Rice considers it a distortion and, in fict, an inferior “literaryzyxw test” (19) to The Sisth Gwdfdw. While Rice admits that Black Elk in his life may have found hisLakotan relipon and his activeCathoIicism to becompatible, Rice hinuelf shows considerableanimusagainst the consistency of such a position. Perhaps one source of Rice’s resistance to Neihardt’s eEorts is his own misreading of Christianity as equivalent to Platonic dualism And merely an otherworldly religon. Rice is reluctant to admit that Black Elk himself came to distrust the Ghost Dance. a reluctancethatsuggeststhat Rice may not trustBlack Elk’s Lakotan roots as much as he asserts in Bhck Elk ’3 Story. 164 zyxwvuts CIRCUITOUS JOURNEYS rial opinion. Furthermore, Neihardt’s description of the holy...