As a personal narrative and an autobiography, Black Elk Speaks is not concerned with developing fictional characters. Its plot traces Black Elk's life through a historical chronology, and its characters are actual figures from the history of the American West. Black Elk is the only person represented in any complete way in the narrative; other characters might be mentioned at most, a handful of times, but readers have no true sense of the details of their lives or personalities.
Black Elk is the protagonist of Black Elk Speaks, the only character readers see close up, from the inside out. He is the first-person narrator of the story, and part of what readers know about him is conveyed by the voice he uses in the narrative, which is modest and generous in deflecting the reader's attention from his personal story to the story of his tribe. Black Elk wins the reader's faith by using friends to corroborate his narration when his own memory is questionable. He sometimes shows a gentle sense of humor or irony, and he does not sound angry or vengeful as he narrates the story of the extreme difficulties his tribe has endured; on the other hand, he is proud and dignified and does not dismiss the wrong done to him, either. He is a holy man, and his spirituality comes through in the story he tells.
Black Elk's character is developed in two main ways: in the process of claiming his privileged place as a holy man and healer, and as a member of the Oglala Sioux, in the course of the tribe's increasingly adverse relationship with American whites (whom he calls Wasichus).
