As Black Elk grows older, the meaning of his vision becomes clearer to him, but he felt alienated as a boy because of his unique experience of the vision. Black Elk frequently feels as if he is pulled back into the world of his vision when he sees or feels something that reminds him of the vision — in this case the birds his father is hunting. At these times, Black Elk often says he feels "queer" (disconnected from the present reality) and longs to be in the world of his vision. Whirlwind Chaser recognizes Black Elk as someone who participated in the sacred, however, and alerts his parents, using language similar to the Grandfathers' language in Black Elk's vision. The adults marked the child's destiny and nurtured his special gift. The acknowledgment of intuitive or extrasensory experience is an outstanding aspect of Indian culture. Indians placed value on this kind of experience and did not think it pathological or criminal.
For the most part, however, this is a straightforward chapter about cultural practices after the more abstract relation of the dream vision. Some of this chapter's content is of almost anthropological interest. A crier alerts the Indians that bison are to be hunted close by, pointing out that the Indians did not keep livestock for food; they relied on animals in the wild. They had scouts to look for those animals, just as they might have scouts keeping track of an enemy. They break camp to go to where they might find the animals. The crier guides them on their way, even directing them when to let their ponies rest, to dig some turnips they come upon, and to be watchful of their children. The scouts come to the council tepee, smoke, and reveal the location of the bison herd. The crier had all the hunters ride out to kill bison. The hunters rode almost naked, outfitted with bows, arrows, and sharpened knives. The Sioux, great warriors, borrowed much from their war practices for hunting.
