Black Elk
Black Elk
Heȟáka Sápa was a famous wičháša wakȟáŋand heyoka of the Oglala Lakotawho lived in the present-day United States, primarily South Dakota. He was a second cousin of the war chief Crazy Horse...
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bears calf carved eagle earth feathers feeds gave grass hanging mean pipe side sky stem tied twelve
Then she gave something to the chief, and it was a pipe with a bison calf carved on one side to mean the earth that bears and feeds us, and with twelve eagle feathers hanging from the stem to mean the sky and the twelve moons, and these were tied with a grass that never breaks,
red sticks earth
So I took the bright red stick and at the center of the nation's hoop I thrust it in the earth.
prayer earth sacred
As you walk upon the sacred earth, treat each step as a prayer.
giving earth give-me-strength
Give me strength to walk the soft earth, a relative to all that is.
order vision earth
It is not enough to have a vision. In order to have its power, you must enact your vision on earth for all to see. Only then do you have the power.
voice grandfather earth
Grandfather, Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and lean to hear my feeble voice.
prayer steps earth
Let every step you take upon the earth be as a prayer.
appeared came clouds fear glad relatives thunder visit
The fear that was on me so long was gone, and when thunder clouds appeared I was always glad to see them, for they came as relatives now to visit me.
knew men saw sixth spirit
Now I knew the sixth Grandfather was about to speak, he who was the Spirit of the Earth, and I saw that he was very old, but more as men are old.
calling voices
Now and then the voices would come back when I was out alone, like someone calling me, but what they wanted me to do I did not know.
helping sixteen
I was sixteen years old and more, and I had not yet done anything the Grandfathers wanted me to do, but they had been helping me.
uncles lying men
They told me I had been sick twelve days, lying like dead all the while, and that Whirlwind Chaser, who was Standing Bear's uncle and a medicine man, had brought me back to life.
opportunity unity world
Every place is the center of the world.
lying people saws
I looked below and saw my people there, and all were well and happy except one, and he was lying like the dead - and that one was myself.