Black Elk Speaks
At First Cure
After the heyoka ceremony, I came to live here where I am now between
Wounded Knee Creek and Grass Creek. Others came too, and we made
these little gray houses of logs that you see, and they are square.
It is a bad way to live, for there can be no power in a square.
You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle,
and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles,
and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a
strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred
hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken, the people
flourished. The flowering tree was the living center of the hoop,
and the circle of the four quarters nourished it. The east gave
peace and light, the south gave warmth, the west gave rain, and
the north with its cold and mighty wind gave strength and endurance.
This knowledge came to us from the outer world with our religion.
Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The
sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball,
and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls.
Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion
as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The
moon does the same, and both are round. Even the seasons form a
great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where
they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood,
and so it is in everything where power moves. Our tepees were round
like the nests of birds, and these were always set in a circle,
the nation's hoop, a nest of many nests, where the Great Spirit
meant for us to hatch our children.
But the Wasichus have put us in these square boxes. Our power is
gone and we are dying, for the power is not in us any more. You
can look at our boys and see how it is with us. When we were living
by the power of the circle in the way we should, boys were men at
twelve or thirteen years of ago. But now it takes them very much
longer to mature.
Well, it is as it is. We are prisoners of war while we are waiting
here. But there is another world.
It was in the Moon of Shedding Ponies [May] when we had the heyoka
ceremony. One day in the Moon of Fatness [June], when everything
was blooming, I invited One Side to come over and eat with me. I
had been thinking about the four-rayed herb that I had now seen
twice--the first time in the great vision when I was nine years
old, and the second time when I was lamenting on the hill. I knew
that I must have this herb for curing, and I thought I could recognize
the place where I had seen it growing that night when I lamented.
After One Side and I had eaten, I told him there was a herb I must
find, and I wanted him to help me hunt for it. Of course I did not
tell him I had seen it in a vision. He was willing to help, so we
got on our horses and rode over to Grass Creek. Nobody was living
over there. We came to the top of a high hill above the creek, and
there we got off our horses and sat down, for I felt that we were
close to where I saw the herb growing in my vision of the dog.
We sat there awhile singing together some heyoka songs.
Then I began to sing alone a song I had heard in my first great
vision:
"In a sacred manner they are sending voices."
After I had sung this song, I looked down towards the west, and
yonder at a certain spot beside the creek were crows and magpies,
chicken hawks and spotted eagles circling around and around.
Then I knew, and I said to One Side: "Friend, right there
is where the herb is growing." He said: "We will go forth
and see." So we got on our horses and rode down Grass Creek
until we came to a dry gulch, and this we followed up. As we neared
the spot the birds all flew away, and it was a place where four
or five dry gulches came together. There right on the side of the
bank the herb was growing, and I knew it, although I had never seen
one like it before, except in my vision.
It had a root about as long as to my elbow, and this was a little
thicker than my thumb. It was flowering in four colors, blue, white,
red, and yellow.
We got off our horses, and after I had offered red willow bark
to the Six Powers, I made a prayer to the herb, and said to it:
"Now we shall go forth to the two-leggeds, but only to the
weakest ones, and there shall be happy days among the weak."
It was easy to dig the herb, because it was growing in the edge
of the clay gulch. Then we started back with it. When we came to
Grass Creek again, we wrapped it in some good sage that was growing
there.
Something must have told me to find the herb just then, for the
next evening I needed it and could have done nothing without it.
I was eating supper when a man by the name of Cuts-to-Pieces came
in, and he was saying: "Hey, hey, hey!" for he was in
trouble. I asked him what was the matter, and he said: "I have
a boy of mine, and he is very sick and I am afraid he will die soon.
He has been sick a long time. They say you have great power from
the horse dance and the heyoka ceremony, so maybe you can save him
for me. I think so much of him."
I told Cuts-to-Pieces that if he really wanted help, he should
go home and bring me back a pipe with an eagle feather on it. While
he was gone, I thought about what I had to do; and I was afraid,
because I had never cured anybody yet with my power, and I was very
sorry for Cuts-to-Pieces. I prayed hard for help. When Cuts-to-Pieces
came back with the pipe, I told him to take it around to the left
of me, leave it there, and pass out again to the right of me. When
he had done this, I sent for One Side to come and help me. Then
I took the pipe and went to where the sick little boy was. My father
and my mother went with us, and my friend, Standing Bear, was already
there.
I first offered the pipe to the Six Powers, then I passed it, and
we all smoked. After that I began making a rumbling thunder sound
on the drum. You know, when the power of the west comes to the two-leggeds,
it comes with rumbling, and when it has passed, everything lifts
up its head and is glad and there is greenness. So I made this rumbling
sound. Also, the voice of the drum is an offering to the Spirit
of the World. Its sound arouses the mind and makes men feel the
mystery and power of things.
The sick little boy was on the northeast side of the tepee, and
when we entered at the south, we went around from left to right,
stopping on the west side when we had made the circle.
You want to know why we always go from left to right like that.
I can tell you something of the reason, but not all. Think of this:
Is not the south the source of life, and does not the flowering
stick truly come from there? And does not man advance from there
toward the setting sun of his life? Then does not he approach the
colder north where the white hairs are? And does he not then arrive,
if he lives, at the source of light and understanding, which is
the east? Then does he not return to where he began, to his second
childhood, there to give back his life to all life, and his flesh
to the earth whence it came? The more you think about this, the
more meaning you will see in it.
As I said, we went into the tepee from left to right, and sat ourselves
down on the west side. The sick little boy was on the northeast
side, and he looked as though he were only skin and bones. I had
the pipe, the drum and the four-rayed herb already, so I asked for
a wooden cup, full of water, and an eagle bone whistle, which was
for the spotted eagle of my great vision. They placed the cup of
water in front of me; and then I had to think awhile, because I
had never done this before and I was in doubt.
I understood a little more now, so I gave the eagle bone whistle
to One Side and told him now to use it in helping me. Then I filled
the pipe with red willow bark, and gave it to the pretty young daughter
of Cuts-to-Pieces, telling her to hold it, just as I had seen the
virgin of the east holding it in my great vision.
Everything was ready now, so I made low thunder on the drum, keeping
time as I sent forth a voice. Four times I cried "Hey-a-a-hey,"
drumming as I cried to the Spirit of the World, and while I was
doing this I could feel the power coming through me from my feet
up, and I knew that I could help the sick little boy.
I kept on sending a voice, while I made low thunder on the drum,
saying: "My Grandfather, Great Spirit, you are the only one
and to no other can any one send voices. You have made everything,
they say, and you have made it good and beautiful. The four quarters
and the two roads crossing each other, you have made. Also you have
set a power where the sun goes down. The two-leggeds on earth are
in despair. For them, my Grandfather, I send a voice to you. You
have said this to me: The weak shall walk. In vision you have taken
me to the center of the world and there you have shown me the power
to make over. The water in the cup that you have given me, by its
power shall the dying live. The herb that you have shown me, through
its power shall the feeble walk upright. From where we are always
facing [the south], behold, a virgin shall appear, walking the good
red road, offering the pipe as she walks, and hers also is the power
of the flowering tree. From where the Giant lives [the north], you
have given me a sacred, cleansing wind, and where this wind passes
the weak shall have strength. You have said this to me. To you and
to all your powers and to Mother Earth I send a voice for help."
You see, I had never done this before, and I know now that only
one power would have been enough. But I was so eager to help the
sick little boy that I called on every power there is.
I had been facing the west, of course, while sending a voice. Now
I walked to the north and to the east and to the south, stopping
there where the source of all life is and where the good red road
begins. Standing there I sang thus:
- "In a sacred manner I have made them walk.
- A sacred nation lies low.
- In a sacred manner I have made them walk.
- A sacred two-legged, he lies low.
- In a sacred manner, he shall walk."
While I was singing this I could feel something queer all through
my body, something that made me want to cry for all unhappy things,
and there were tears on my face.
Now I walked to the quarter of the west, where I lit the pipe,
offered it to the powers, and, after I had taken a whiff of smoke,
I passed it around.
When I looked at the sick little boy again, he smiled at me, and
I could feel that the power was getting stronger.
I next took the cup of water, drank a little of it, and went around
to where the sick little boy was. Standing before him, I stamped
the earth four times. Then, putting my mouth to the pit of his stomach,
I drew through him the cleansing wind of the north. I next chewed
some of the herb and put it in the water, afterward blowing some
of it on the boy and to the four quarters. The cup with the rest
of the water I gave to the virgin, who gave it to the sick little
boy to drink. Then I told the virgin to help the boy stand up and
to walk around the circle with him, beginning at the south, the
source of life. He was very poor and weak, but with the virgin's
help he did this.
Then I went away.
Next day Cuts-to-Pieces came and told me that his little boy was
feeling better and was sitting up and could eat something again.
In four days he could walk around. He got well and lived to be thirty
years old.
Cuts-to-Pieces gave me a good horse for doing this; but of course
I would have done it for nothing.
When the people heard about how the little boy was cured, many
came to me for help, and I was busy most of the time.
This was in the summer of my nineteenth year [1882], in the Moon
of Making Fat.
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Native American Legends A-B