The six Lakota bands (Ogalalas, Brules, Sans Arcs, Black Kettles, Hunkpapas, and Minneconjous) who camped together, scattered after the bison hunt. Some Oglalas went to Fort Robinson (Soldiers’ Town); others stayed behind with Crazy Horse, who wanted nothing to do with white men. Black Elk joined his relatives near Soldiers’ Town, where he saw his first white man, and camped there all winter. He tells about playing with the other children on sleds made of bison jaws and ribs. At one point during their stay, soldiers threatened to punish the Indians because an Indian boy mischievously cut off the top of a flagpole at the fort, but Red Cloud intervened and made peace. Red Cloud was a great chief, but he quit fighting after the treaty of 1868, which was five years before.
Black Elk goes deer hunting with his father and feels back in the world of his vision when he hears the whistle of a spotted eagle. He tells his father that they need not pursue the deer because the deer will be brought to them, and that comes to pass; his father kills two deer.
During his time at Soldiers’ Town, Watanye teaches Black Elk to spear fish. Watanye’s mouth was covered with sores that bled when he laughed.
