Black Elk Speaks

Even as a child, Black Elk exhibits special powers. Shortly after his great vision, when he is hunting with his father, he can sense where the deer are. He feels a special kinship with the animals that figured in his vision, especially the eagle; whenever he hears the whistle of an eagle, he is imaginatively transported to the world of his vision. But Black Elk also exhibits another aspect of the developing hero, the child of destiny, and that is a self-consciousness to the point of feeling disconcertingly different from those around him. He repeatedly describes himself as feeling "queer" during these early years and knowing that others think he has become strange; his friend Standing Bear confirms his judgment. He also develops a great deal of anxiety about fulfilling the mandate of his vision, an anxiety that grows into what he calls "the compelling fear." The Sioux are living in troubled times: The U.S. Government's attempts to annex Indian territory and contain the Indians on reservations was a persecution that amounted to cultural genocide as the Sioux were starved into submission, their weapons and horses confiscated. The tribal culture that would otherwise have supported Black Elk in his role as holy man has become fragmented and does not offer him a clear way to maintain the sacred hoop of his nation.