Notes

Notes 197 Black Elk and Two Western Authors I should like to relate a bit ofmidwestern triviawhich may be of interest to readers in general and to literary scholars in particular. It concerns the now world-famous Lakota holy man Black Elk and two of Nebraska’s best-known writers. WhenJohn Neihardt travelled to Pine Ridge, South Dakota, in August of 1930, he had no thoughtofwritingabooksuch asBlackElkSpeaks. His historical research completed, he had begun the final volume ofA Cycleofthe West, ‘The Songofthe Messiah,”and—aswashis customarypractice—desired to meet and become personallyacquaintedwithan Indian holymanwho hadparticipated in the Messiah movement or the “Ghost Dance Craze,”asit has often been called. To achieve this, he and his son, Sigurd, interrupted a lecture-concert tour and drove to the Indian Agency at Pine Ridge. Neihardt told the agent, a Mr. Courtwright with whom he had previously been acquainted, of his desire to meet someone among the Lakotas who could give him the personal, intimate association with the Messiah movement which he needed to bring the desired authenticity to his proposed work. Agent Courtwrightwasfriendly andwished to be helpful. He told Neihardt that he personally knew ofno such holyman, butsuggested that the several old Indians gathered in front of the Agency might know of someone who could provide the information Neihardt sought. So the twowent outside the building and approached the old men in rumpled trousers and cowboy hats who were chatting and passing the time there. Courtwright introduced Neihardt and told them that he was awriter, wasworking on a book about the Indian people, and thathe wished to meet and get to knowaholyman oftheir tribe who had taken part in the Ghost Dancing ofthe late 1880s. Did they, Courtwright asked, know of someone like that? The old fellows talked together for a time in Lakota, then one of them replied, saying that an old man named Black Elk—“a kind ofa preacher”—who lived west of Manderson had been a ghost dancer and might be able to tell Neihardt something about the movement. Delighted with this prospect, Neihardt immediately asked for directions to the holy man’s home, and also inquired if Mr. Courtwright knew of a Lakota who would go with him as an interpreter, for he was informed that Black Elk did not speak English. A man named Flying Hawk volunteered to do this for Neihardt, and the three immediately set off in Neihardt’s car for Manderson and Black Elk’s one-room log cabin located about four miles west of the town. As they drove, Flying Hawk told the Neihardts he doubted that BlackElkwould speak to them, because about two weeks before a “lady writer from Lincoln,”who remained nameless, had approached the old holy man, but Black Elk would not talk to 198 WesternAmerican Literature her. Flying Hawk recalled that Black Elk had softened his refusal to talk to the lady in this manner: “I can see thatyou are nice-looking, and I feel thatyou are good, but I do not want to talk to you about these things.”Neihardt’sresponse to Flying Hawk made it clear that he was not discouraged by Black Elk’searlier refusal: “I have never met an Indian yet who would not talk to me, and I have known Indian people for more than thirtyyears.” The storyabout the meeting ofBlack Elkand Neihardt has been told many times, but perhaps a brief repetition is in order here. When the three men drove up to Black Elk’s cabin, which stood quite alone on a dry and dusty hillside, they sawan Indian dressed in arumpledwhite man’ssuitoutinfrontof the pine sunshade next to his home, peering down the road which led from Manderson, as though expecting visitors. When Flying Hawk introduced Neihardt, the gracious old Indian squinted at his guests, and my father noted that Black Elk was partially blind. After my father had given Black Elk some cigarettes and perhaps other small gifts he had broughtwith him,which the old fellow received with dignified approval, the men sat down on the dusty ground shaded by the pine bower. Always courteous, Black Elk responded, ifonly briefly, to various questions proposed by my father, and it became evident...