Black Elk Speaks
The Bison Hunt
When I got back to my father and mother and was sitting up there
in our tepee, my face was still all puffed and my legs and arms
were badly swollen; but I felt good all over and wanted to get right
up and run around. My parents would not let me. They told me I had
been sick twelve days, lying like dead all the while, and that Whirlwind
Chaser, who was Standing Bear's uncle and a medicine man, had brought
me back to life. I knew it was the Grandfathers in the Flaming Rainbow
Tepee who had cured me; but I felt afraid to say so. My father gave
Whirlwind Chaser the best horse he had for making me well, and many
people came to look at me, and there was much talk about the great
power of Whirlwind Chaser who had made me well all at once when
I was almost the same as dead.
Everybody was glad that I was living; but as I lay there thinking
about the wonderful place where I had been and all that I had seen,
I was very sad; for it seemed to me that everybody ought to know
about it, but I was afraid to tell, because I knew that nobody would
believe me, little as I was, for I was only nine years old. Also,
as I lay there thinking of my vision, I could see it all again and
feel the meaning with a part of me like a strange power glowing
in my body; but when the part of me that talks would try to make
words for the meaning, it would be like fog and get away from me.
I am sure now that I was then too young to understand it all, and
that I only felt it. It was the pictures I remembered and the words
that went with them; for nothing I have ever seen with my eyes was
so clear and bright as what my vision showed me; and no words that
I have ever heard with my ears were like the words I heard. I did
not have to remember these things; they have remembered themselves
all these years. It was as I grew older that the meanings came clearer
and clearer out of the pictures and the words; and even now I know
that more was shown to me than I can tell.
That evening of the day when I came back, Whirlwind Chaser, who
had got a great name and a good horse for curing me, came over to
our tepee. He sat down and looked at me a long time in a strange
way, and then he said to my father: "Your boy there is sitting
in a sacred manner. I do not know what it is, but there is something
special for him to do, for just as I came in I could see a power
like a light all through his body."
While he was looking hard at me, I wanted to get up and run away,
for I was afraid he might look right into me and see my vision there
and tell it wrong, and then maybe all the people would think that
I was crazy. For a long while after that, whenever I saw Whirlwind
Chaser coming, I would run away and hide for fear he might see into
me and tell.
The next morning all the swelling had left my face and legs and
arms, and I felt well as ever; but everything around me seemed strange
and as though it were far away. I remember that for twelve days
after that I wanted to be alone, and it seemed I did not belong
to my people. They were almost like strangers. I would be out alone
away from the village and the other boys, and I would look around
to the four quarters, thinking of my vision and wishing I could
get back there again. I would go home to eat, but I could not make
myself eat much; and my father and mother thought that I was sick
yet; but I was not. I was only homesick for the place where I had
been.
I could not tell what I had seen and heard even to my mother's
father, Refuse-To-Go, although before that I used to think that
I could tell him anything, for he liked everything a boy could like,
and there was no end to the wonderful things he would tell. It was
he who made the first bow I ever had, and he always had more arrows
ready for me when I had lost all those that he had given me. I loved
my father, but Refuse-To-Go was different, and I used to be with
him a great deal. This was the first thing I could not tell him.
One day during this time I was out with the bow and arrows my Grandfather
had made for me, and as I walked along thinking of my vision, suddenly
I felt queer, and for a little while it seemed that the bow and
arrows were those that the First Grandfather in the Flaming Rainbow
Tepee had given me. Then they were only those that Refuse-To-Go
had made, and I felt foolish and tried to make myself think it was
all only a dream anyway. So I thought I would forget about it and
shoot something. There was a bush and a little bird sitting in it;
but just as I was going to shoot, I felt queer again, and remembered
that I was to be like a relative with the birds. So I did not shoot.
Then I went on down toward a creek, feeling foolish because I had
let the little bird go, and when I saw a green frog sitting there,
I just shot him right away. But when I picked him up by the legs,
I thought: "Now I have killed him," and it made me want
to cry.
Standing Bear Speaks:
I remember the time when my friend here was sick. I was four years
older than he was. I am Minneconjou, but our mothers were cousins
and we used to play together when our bands were camping in one
place. It was at the headwaters of the Greasy Grass (Little Bighorn).
Everybody in the village was well, and so was Black Elk. The next
thing I heard was that he was dying and just breathing a little.
Everybody was excited over it, and they sent for medicine to other
bands, but nobody knew what the sickness was. I saw him during this
time. He looked dead, and everybody was talking about him. Then
he was well all at once, and everybody wondered and talked about
it.
I remember too how it was after he got up. Right after that we
moved camp to the mouth of Willow Creek, south about two days, and
while the village was moving, I rode back to where the smaller boys
were in the rear, for I wanted to see my young friend. I said to
him: "How, younger brother! You got well after all!" And
he said: "How! Yes, I am not sick at all now!" But as
we rode along together and talked, he was not like a boy. He was
more like an old man. And I can remember his father talking to my
father in our tepee while we were eating one evening. He said something
like this: "Since my boy was sick, he is not the same boy.
He has queer ways and he does not like to be at home. I feel sorry
about the way he is, poor boy!"
Then we went on a big hunt and the people did not talk about it
any more.
Black Elk Continues:
Yes, we went on a big hunt after we had been at Willow Creek awhile,
and it helped me to quit thinking about my vision all the time.
One morning the crier came around the circle of the village calling
out that we were going to break camp. The advisers were in the council
tepee, and he cried to them: "The advisers, come forth to the
center and bring your fires along." It was their duty to save
fire for the people, because we had no matches then.
"Now take it down, down!" the crier shouted. And all
the people began taking down their tepees, and packing them on pony
drags.
Then the crier said: "Many bison, I have heard; many bison,
I have heard! Your children, you must take care of them!" He
meant to keep the children close while traveling, so that they would
not scare the bison.
Then we broke camp and started in formation, the four advisers
first, a crier behind them, the chiefs next, and then the people
with the loaded pony drags in a long line, and the herd of ponies
following. I was riding near the rear with some of the smaller boys,
and when the people were going up a long hill, I looked ahead and
it made me feel queer again for a little while, because I remembered
the nation walking in a sacred manner on the red road in my vision.
But this was different, and I forgot about it soon, for something
exciting was going to happen, and even the ponies seemed to know.
After we had been traveling awhile, we came to a place where there
were many turnips growing, and the crier said: "Take off your
loads and let your horses rest. Take your sticks and dig turnips
for yourselves." And while the people were doing this, the
advisers sat on a hill nearby and smoked. Then the crier shouted:
"Put on your loads!" and soon the village was moving again.
When the sun was high, the advisers found a place to camp where
there was wood and also water; and while the women were cooking
all around the circle I heard people saying that the scouts were
returning, and over the top of a hill I saw three horsebacks coming.
They rode to the council tepee in the middle of the village and
all the people were going there to hear. I went there too and got
up close so that I could look in between the legs of the men. The
crier came out of the council tepee and said, speaking to the people
for the scouts: "I have protected you; in return you shall
give me many gifts." The scouts then sat down before the door
of the tepee and one of the advisers filled the sacred pipe with
chacun sha sha, the bark of the red willow, and set it on a bison
chip in front of him, because the bison was sacred and gave us both
food and shelter. Then he lit the pipe, offered it to the four quarters,
to the Spirit above and to Mother Earth, and passing it to the scouts
he said: "The nation has depended upon you. Whatever you have
seen, maybe it is for the good of the people you have seen."
The scouts smoked, meaning that they would tell the truth. Then
the adviser said: "At what place have you stood and seen the
good? Report it to me and I will be glad."
One of the scouts answered: "You know where we started from.
We went and reached the top of a hill and there we saw a small herd
of bison." He pointed as he spoke.
The adviser said: "Maybe on the other side of that you have
seen the good. Report it." The scout answered: "On the
other side of that we saw a second and larger herd of bison."
Then the adviser said: "I shall be thankful to you. Tell me
all that you have seen out there."
The scout replied: "On the other side of that there was nothing
but bison all over the country."
And the adviser said: " Hetchetu aloh!"
Then the crier shouted like singing: "Your knives shall be
sharpened, your arrows shall be sharpened. Make ready, make haste;
your horses make ready! We shall go forth with arrows. Plenty of
meat we shall make!"
Everybody began sharpening knives and arrows and getting the best
horses ready for the great making of meat.
Then we started for where the bison were. The soldier band went
first, riding twenty abreast, and anybody who dared go ahead of
them would get knocked off his horse. They kept order, and everybody
had to obey. After them came the hunters, riding five abreast. The
people came up in the rear. Then the head man of the advisers went
around picking out the best hunters with the fastest horses, and
to these he said: "Good young warriors, my relatives, your
work I know is good. What you do is good always; so to-day you shall
feed the helpless. Perhaps there are some old and feeble people
without sons, or some who have little children and no man. You shall
help these, and whatever you kill shall be theirs." This was
a great honor for young men.
Then when we had come near to where the bison were, the hunters
circled around them, and the cry went up, as in a battle, "
Hoka hey!" which meant to charge. Then there was a great dust
and everybody shouted and all the hunters went in to kill--every
man for himself. They were all nearly naked, with their quivers
full of arrows hanging on their left sides, and they would ride
right up to a bison and shoot him behind the left shoulder. Some
of the arrows would go in up to the feathers and sometimes those
that struck no bones went right straight through. Everybody was
very happy.
Standing Bear Speaks:
I remember that hunt, for before that time I had only killed a
calf. I was thirteen years old and supposed to be a man, so I made
up my mind I'd get a yearling. One of them went down a draw and
I raced after him on my pony. My first shot did not seem to hurt
him at all; but my pony kept right after him, and the second arrow
went in half way. I think I hit his heart, for he began to wobble
as he ran and blood came out of his nose. Hunters cried "Yuhoo!"
once when they killed, but this was my first big bison, and I just
kept on yelling "Yuhoo!" People must have thought I was
killing a whole herd, the way I yelled. When he went down, I got
off my horse and began butchering him myself, and I was very happy.
All over the flat, as far as I could see, there were men butchering
bison now, and the women and the old men who could not hunt were
coming up to help. And all the women were making the tremolo of
joy for what the warriors had given them. That was in the Moon of
Red Cherries [July]. It was a great killing.
Black Elk Continues:
I was well enough to go along on my pony, but I was not old enough
to hunt. So we little boys scouted around and watched the hunters;
and when we would see a bunch of bison coming, we would yell "Yuhoo"
like the others, but nobody noticed us.
When the butchering was all over, they hung the meat across the
horses' backs and fastened it with strips of fresh bison hide. On
the way back to the village all the hunting horses were loaded,
and we little boys who could not wait for the feast helped ourselves
to all the raw liver we wanted. Nobody got cross when we did this.
During this time, women back at camp were cutting long poles and
forked sticks to make drying racks for the meat. When the hunters
got home they threw their meat in piles on the leaves of trees.
Then the advisers all went back into the council tepee, and from
all directions the people came bringing gifts of meat to them, and
the advisers all cried " Hya-a-a-a!," after which they
sang for those who had brought them the good gifts. And when they
had eaten all they could, the crier shouted to the people: "All
come home! It is more than I can eat!" And people from all
over the camp came to get a little of the meat that was left over.
The women were all busy cutting the meat into strips and hanging
it on the racks to dry. You could see red meat hanging everywhere.
The people feasted all night long and danced and sang. Those were
happy times.
There was a war game that we little boys played after a big hunt.
We went out a little way from the village and built some grass tepees,
playing we were enemies and this was our village. We had an adviser,
and when it got dark he would order us to go and steal some dried
meat from the big people. He would hold a stick up to us and we
had to bite off a piece of it. If we bit a big piece we had to get
a big piece of meat, and if we bit a little piece, we did not have
to get so much. Then we started for the big people's village, crawling
on our bellies, and when we got back without getting caught, we
would have a big feast and a dance and make kill talks, telling
of our brave deeds like warriors. Once, I remember, I had no brave
deed to tell. I crawled up to a leaning tree beside a tepee and
there was meat hanging on the limbs. I wanted a tongue I saw up
there in the moonlight, so I climbed up. But just as I was about
to reach it, the man in the tepee yelled "Ye-a-a!" He
was saying this to his dog, who was stealing some meat too, but
I thought the man had seen me, and I was so scared I fell out of
the tree and ran away crying.
Then we used to have what we called a chapped breast dance. Our
adviser would look us over to see whose breast was burned most from
not having it covered with the robe we wore; and the boy chosen
would lead the dance while we all sang like this:
- "I have a chapped breast.
- My breast is red.
- My breast is yellow."
And we practiced endurance too. Our adviser would put dry sunflower
seeds on our wrists. There were lit at the top, and we had to let
them burn clear down to the skin. They hurt and made sores, but
if we knocked them off or cried Owh!, we would be called women.
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Native American Legends A-B