This chapter introduces three central themes in Black Elk's narrative: the great cultural and philosophical differences between Indians and whites that resulted in conflict and destruction as whites moved west; the visionary ideal of the perfect Indian society, which existed in the mythic past but was spoiled in the present by the actions of the whites; and, finally, the problems of autobiographical narrative, including the accuracy of memory, complicated in Black Elk's case by the translation, transcription, and editing of his oral narrative by others.
At the time of Black Elk's birth, the U.S. Civil War had slowed down westward expansion, both because the war consumed national efforts and because many able-bodied young and middle-aged men that would have immigrated had become war casualties. The decade between 1860 and 1870 was the first decade since the 1790s that did not witness a 30 percent growth in United States population. The Gold Rush of 1849 had diminished. Kansas became a state in 1861, and the next to enter the union would be Nebraska in 1867. Only about a third of Minnesota and Texas was inhabited by whites; the rest of what are now American States were territories. In 1869, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads would join in Utah to form the Transcontinental Railroad.
Some of the most immediately apparent differences between Indian and white culture in this chapter seem merely superficial, but actually represent deep contrasts in worldview. One of these differences relates to the concept of space. At this time, the U.S. Government was annexing huge amounts of land, naming them "territories," which the Indians had formerly inhabited. In addition to claiming "uninhabited" territory, the government imposed geopolitical boundaries that defined states and the nation, but nineteenth-century Indians refused to acknowledge these claims and boundaries. Indians maintained a sense of tribal boundary, marked by encampment and use of the land, but they did not share the Euro-American concept of land ownership. The U.S. Government struck treaties with the Indians, and then violated those treaties. And, to make room for the Transcontinental Railroad, the whites annihilated the bison that were food and a sacred animal to the Indians.
