Black Elk Speaks
The Messiah
There was hunger among my people before I went away across the
big water, because the Wasichus did not give us all the food they
promised in the Black Hills treaty. They made that treaty themselves;
our people did not want it and did not make it. Yet the Wasichus
who made it had given us less than half as much as they promised.
So the people were hungry before I went away.
But it was worse when I came back. My people looked pitiful. There
was a big drouth, and the rivers and creeks seemed to be dying.
Nothing would grow that the people had planted, and the Wasichus
had been sending less cattle and other food than ever before. The
Wasichus had slaughtered all the bison and shut us up in pens. It
looked as though we might all starve to death. We could not eat
lies, and there was nothing we could do.
And now the Wasichus had made another treaty to take away from
us about half the land we had left. Our people did not want this
treaty either, but Three Stars came and made the treaty just the
same, because the Wasichus wanted our land between the Smoky Earth
and the Good River. So the flood of Wasichus, dirty with bad deeds,
gnawed away half of the island that was left to us. When Three Stars
came to kill us on the Rosebud, Crazy Horse whipped him and drove
him back. But when he came this time without any soldiers, he whipped
us and drove us back. We were penned up and could do nothing.
All the time I was away from the home across the big water, my
power was gone, and I was like a dead man moving around most of
the time. I could hardly remember my vision, and when I did remember,
it seemed like a dim dream.
Just after I came back, some people asked me to cure a sick person,
and I was afraid the power would not come back to me; but it did.
So I went on helping the sick, and there were many, for the measles
had come among the people who were already weak because of hunger.
There were more sick people that winter when the whooping cough
came and killed little children who did not have enough to eat.
So it was. Our people were pitiful and in despair.
But early that summer when I came back from across the big water
[1889] strange news had come from the west, and the people had been
talking and talking about it. They were talking about it when I
came home, and that was the first I had heard of it. This news came
to the Ogalalas first of all, and I heard that it came to us from
the Shoshones and Blue Clouds [Arapahoes]. Some believed it and
some did not believe. It was hard to believe; and when I first heard
of it, I thought it was only foolish talk that somebody had started
somewhere. This news said that out yonder in the west at a place
near where the great mountains [The Sierras] stand before you come
to the big water, there was a sacred man among Paiutes who had talked
to the Great Spirit in a vision, and the Great Spirit had told him
how to save the Indian peoples and make the Wasichus disappear and
bring back all the bison and the people who were dead and how there
would be a new earth. Before I came back, the people had got together
to talk about this and they had sent three men, Good Thunder, Brave
Bear and Yellow Breast, to see this sacred man with their own eyes
and learn if the story about him was true. So these three men had
made the long journey west, and in the fall after I came home, they
returned to the Ogalalas with wonderful things to tell.
There was a big meeting at the head of White Clay Creek, not far
from Pine Ridge, when they came back, but I did not go over there
to hear, because I did not yet believe. I thought maybe it was only
the despair that made people believe, just as a man who is starving
may dream of plenty of everything good to eat.
I did not go over to the meeting, but I heard all they had to tell.
These three men all said the same thing, and they were good men.
They said that they traveled far until they came to a great flat
valley near the last great mountains before the big water, and there
they saw the Wanekia, who was the son of the Great Spirit, and they
talked to him. Wasichus called him Jack Wilson, but his name was
Wovoka. He told them that there was another world coming, just like
a cloud. It would come in a whirlwind out of the west and would
crush out everything on this world, which was old and dying. In
that other world there was plenty of meat, just like old times;
and in that world all the dead Indians were alive, and all the bison
that had ever been killed were roaming around again.
This sacred man gave some sacred red paint and two eagle feathers
to Good Thunder. The people must put this paint on their faces and
they must dance a ghost dance that the sacred man taught to Good
Thunder, Yellow Breast, and Brave Bear. If they did this, they could
get on this other world when it came, and the Wasichus would not
be able to get on, and so they would disappear. When he gave the
two eagle feathers to Good Thunder, the sacred man said: "Receive
these eagle feathers and behold them, for my father will cause these
to bring your people back to him."
This was all that was heard the whole winter.
When I heard this about the red paint and the eagle feathers and
about bringing the people back to the Great Spirit, it made me think
hard. I had had a great vision that was to bring the people back
into the nation's hoop, and maybe this sacred man had had the same
vision and it was going to come true, so that the people would get
back on the red road. Maybe I was not meant to do this myself, but
if I helped with the power that was given me, the tree might bloom
again and the people prosper. This was in my mind all that winter,
but I did not know what vision the sacred man out there had seen,
and I wished I could talk to him and find out. This was sitting
deeper in my mind every day, and it was a very bad winter, with
much hunger and sickness.
My father died in the first part of the winter from the bad sickness
that many people had. This made me very sad. Everything good seemed
to be going away. My younger brother and sister had died before
I came home, and now I was fatherless in this world. But I still
had my mother. I was working in a store for the Wasichus so that
I could get something for her to eat, and I just kept on working
there and thinking about what Good Thunder, Yellow Breast, and Brave
Bear had told; but I did not feel sure yet.
During that winter the people wanted to hear some more about this
sacred man and the new world coming, so they sent more men out there
to learn what they could. Good Thunder and Yellow Breast, with two
others, went from Pine Ridge. Some went with them from other agencies,
and two of these were Kicking Bear and Short Bull. News came back
from these men as they traveled west, and it seemed that everywhere
people believed all that we had heard, and more. Letters came back
telling us this. I kept on working in the store and helping sick
people with my power.
Then it was spring [1890], and I heard that these men had all come
back from the west and that they said it was all true. I did not
go to this meeting either, but I heard the gossip that was everywhere
now, and people said it was really the son of the Great Spirit who
was out there; that when he came to the Wasichus a long time ago,
they had killed him; but he was coming to the Indians this time,
and there would not be any Wasichus in the new world that would
come like a cloud in a whirlwind and crush out the old earth that
was dying. This they said would happen after one more winter, when
the grasses were appearing [1891].
I heard many wonderful things about the Wanekia that these men
had seen and heard, and they were good men. He could make animals
talk, and once while they were with him he made a spirit vision,
and they all saw it. They saw a big water, and beyond it was a beautiful
green land where all the Indians that had ever lived and the bison
and the other animals were all coming home together. Then the Wanekia,
they said, made the vision go out, because it was not yet time for
this to happen. After another winter it would happen, when the grasses
were appearing.
And once, they said, the Wanekia held out his hat for them to look
into; and when they did this, all but one saw there the whole world
and all that was wonderful. But that one could see only the inside
of the hat, they said.
Good Thunder himself told me that, with the power of the Wanekia,
he had gone to a bison skin tepee; and there his son, who had been
dead a long time, was living with his wife, and they had a long
talk together.
This was not like my great vision, and I just went on working in
the store. I was puzzled and did not know what to think.
Afterwhile I heard that north of Pine Ridge at the head of Cheyenne
Creek, Kicking Bear had held the first ghost dance, and that people
who danced had seen their dead relatives and talked to them. The
next thing I heard was that they were dancing on Wounded Knee Creek
just below Manderson.
I did not believe yet, but I wanted to find out things, because
all this was sitting more and more strongly in my heart since my
father died. Something seemed to tell me to go and see. For awhile
I kept from going, but at last I could not any more. So I got on
my horse and went to this ghost dance on Wounded Knee Creek below
Manderson.
I was surprised, and could hardly believe what I saw; because so
much of my vision seemed to be in it. The dancers, both women and
men, were holding hands in a big circle, and in the center of the
circle they had a tree painted red with most of its branches cut
off and some dead leaves on it. This was exactly like the part of
my vision where the holy tree was dying, and the circle of the men
and women holding hands was like the sacred hoop that should have
power to make the tree to bloom again. I saw too that the sacred
articles the people had offered were scarlet, as in my vision, and
all their faces were painted red. Also, they used the pipe and the
eagle feathers. I sat there looking on and feeling sad. It all seemed
to be from my great vision somehow and I had done nothing yet to
make the tree to bloom.
Then all at once great happiness overcame me, and it all took hold
of me right there. This was to remind me to get to work at once
and help to bring my people back into the sacred hoop, that they
might again walk the red road in a sacred manner pleasing to the
Powers of the Universe that are One Power. I remembered how the
spirits had taken me to the center of the earth and shown me the
good things, and how my people should prosper. I remembered how
the Six Grandfathers had told me that through their power I should
make my people live and the holy tree should bloom. I believed my
vision was coming true at last, and happiness overcame me.
When I went to the dance, I went only to see and to learn what
the people believed; but now I was going to stay and use the power
that had been given me. The dance was over for that day, but they
would dance again next day, and I would dance with them.
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