Black Elk Speaks
At The Soldiers' Town
After all the meat was dried, the six bands of our nation that
had come together about the time when the great vision came to me,
broke camp at the mouth of Willow Creek and scattered in all directions.
A small part of our band, the Ogalalas, started south for the Soldiers'
Town on Smoky Earth River [the White], for some of our relatives
were there and we wanted to see them and have a feast of aguiapi
and paezhuta sapa with chahumpi ska in it. All the rest of the Ogalalas
stayed in the country with Crazy Horse, who would have nothing to
do with the Wasichus. This was late in the Moon When the Cherries
are Ripe [July] and we boys had a good time playing. There were
not many boys in our small band, and we all played together. I had
quit thinking about my vision. The queer feeling had left me and
I was not bashful any more; but whenever a thunder storm was coming
I felt happy, as though somebody were coming to visit me.
We camped first on Powder River, then on the headwaters of the
north fork of Good River [the Cheyenne] where there is a big butte
that we called Sits-With-Young-One, because it has a little butte
beside it. Then we camped on Driftwood Creek, then on the Plain
of Pine Trees, and next on Plum Creek. When we got there, the plums
were turning red, but they were not quite ripe yet. My grandfather
went out and got some big red ones and they tasted good. When we
got to War Bonnet Creek, which is not very far from the Soldiers'
Town, my aunt and other relatives were there waiting for us with
bread and coffee, and we had a big feast. I was sick all that night,
and the next day my parents made me ride on a pony drag, because
they were afraid I would surely die this time. But I think it was
only too much bread and coffee, and maybe the plums. We camped again
at Hips Hill, and by this time most of our people from the Soldiers'
Town were among us. The next day about twenty tepees of us went
on, and the rest stayed back. We camped with our relatives by White
Butte near the Soldiers' Town and stayed there all winter, and we
had a good time sliding down hill with sleds made out of bison jaws
and ribs tied together with rawhide.
I was ten years old that winter, and that was the first time I
ever saw a Wasichu. At first I thought they all looked sick, and
I was afraid they might just begin to fight us any time, but I got
used to them.
That winter one of our boys climbed the flagpole and chopped it
off near the top. This almost made bad trouble, for the soldiers
surrounded us with their guns; but Red Cloud, who was living there,
stood right in the middle without a weapon and made speeches to
the Wasichus and to us. He said the boy who did it must be punished,
and he told the Wasichus it was foolish for men to want to shoot
grown people because their little boys did foolish things in play;
and he asked them if they ever did foolish things for fun when they
were boys. So nothing happened after all.
Red Cloud was a great chief, and he was an Ogalala. But at this
time he was through with fighting. After the treaty he made with
the Wasichus five years before [1868] he never fought again, and
he was living with his band, the Bad Faces, at the Soldiers' Town.
Crazy Horse was an Ogalala too, and I think he was the greatest
chief of all.
In the Moon of the Red Grass Appearing [April] about thirty tepees
of us broke camp and started for the Black Hills to cut tepee poles.
We followed down Horse-Head-Cutting Creek to its mouth, and while
we were camped there one day I was away from the village alone,
when I heard a spotted eagle whistle. I looked up and there he was,
hovering over me. The queer feeling came back very strong, and for
a little while it seemed that I was in the world of my vision again.
From there we moved on to Buffalo Gap at the foot of the Hills,
and my father and I went out alone to look for deer. We climbed
up through the timber to the top of a big hill, and it was hard
for my father, who was lame from the wound he got in the Battle
of the Hundred Slain. When we were on top, my father looked down
and said: "There are some yonder. You stay here, and I will
go around them." Then the queer feeling came back, and I said
without knowing why I said it: "No, father, stay here; for
they are bringing them to us." He looked at me hard, and said:
"Who is bringing them?" I could not answer; and after
he had looked hard at me again, he said: "All right, son."
So we lay down there in the grass and waited. They did come to us,
and my father got two of them.
While we were butchering and I was eating some liver, I felt sorry
that we had killed these animals and thought that we ought to do
something in return. So I said: "Father, should we not offer
one of these to the wild things?" He looked hard at me again
for a while. Then he placed one of the deer with its head to the
east, and, facing the west, he raised his hand and cried, "
Hey-hey" four times and prayed like this: "Grandfather,
the Great Spirit, behold me! To all the wild things that eat flesh,
this I have offered that my people may live and the children grow
up with plenty."
That was another happy summer, for the big trouble had not come
yet. We cut plenty of tepee poles up along the creeks that came
down the east side of the Black Hills, and there was all we wanted
to eat, for the Hills were like a big food pack for our people.
Iron Bull, a little boy my age, and I had great fun fishing. We
always made an offering of bait to the fish, saying: "You who
are down in the water with wings of red, I offer this to you; so
come hither." Then when we caught the first fish, we would
put it on a forked stick and kiss it. If we did not do this, we
were sure the others would know and stay away. If we caught a little
fish, we would kiss it and throw it back, so that it would not go
and frighten the bigger fish. I don't know whether all this helped
or not, but we always got plenty of fish, and our parents were proud
of us. We tried to catch as many as we could so that people would
think much of us.
There was a man by the name of Watanye who was good at spearing
fish, and he had very sore lips so that he did not dare to laugh.
They were cracked all around his mouth. People would try to make
him laugh, but he would just walk away from them. One day he said
to me: "Younger brother, I will show you how to spear fish."
So we went up the creek, and there was a fish this long [to his
elbow] lying in a pool. "Take the spear," Watanye said,
"and strike deep, for they are always farther down than they
look." I took the spear and thrust with it as hard as I could;
but the clear water was much deeper than it seemed. I missed and
went over head-first into the cold pool. When I scrambled out, Watanye
was all doubled up, hugging his belly, and going "hunh, hunh,
hunh!" Blood was running down his chin. He ran away as fast
as he could, and for a long while after that, whenever he saw me
coming, he would turn and run, so that he would not have to laugh
again. Once I hid in a bush until he came along, just to see him
run when I jumped out.
I think Watanye liked me a good deal, because he often used to
take me out alone to fish or hunt, and he was always teaching me
things. Also, he liked to tell me stories, mostly funny ones when
he did not have sore lips. I still remember one story he told me
about a young Lakota called High Horse, and what a hard time he
had getting the girl he wanted. Watanye said the story happened
just as he told it, and maybe it did. If it did not, it could have,
just as well as not. I will tell that story now.
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