Black Elk Speaks (46 page)

3
.
Horsehead Creek
.

4
.
Neihardt uses the terms sweat tepee, sweat house, and sweat bath interchangeably to designate the sweat lodge
(iníthipi).
For Black Elk’s account of the sweat lodge ritual
(iníka
api ��
renewing life’), see Brown
, The Sacred Pipe, 31-43.
The fullest study of the sweat lodge is Bucko
, The Lakota Ritual of the Sweat Lodge.

5
. Pheh
h
ska ‘
long hair’ was the Lakota name given to Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer
.

6
.
During summer 1874, Lt. Col. Custer led an expedition of some one thousand men into the Black Hills to select a location for building a military post. When they returned to Fort Abraham Lincoln, across the Missouri River from Bismarck (then the terminus of the Northern Pacific Rail road) they reported the discovery of gold in the hills. Despite the army’s efforts to discourage them, by summer 1875 some eight hundred miners mere working illegally in the Black Hills, an area reserved for the Lakotas by the 1868 treaty. See Utley
, Frontier Regulars, 243–45.

7
.
The historical material in this and the preceding three paragraphs (beginning “Afterward I learned …) is Neihardt’s
.

8
.
For the life of Sitting Bull, the Hunk papa chief, see Vestal, Sitting Bull, and Utley,
The Lance and the Shield.

9
.
The name refers to the Wáglu
e ‘lives with his wife’s relatives,’ generally translated “Loafers.” This is the name of the mixed Oglala and Brule band that formed during the 18505 around Fort Laramie, in here a number of Lakota women were married to soldiers. See
Hyde, Red Cloud’s Folk, 86, 314, Spotted Tail’s Folk, 86.

10
.
Walter P. Jenny, a geologist, headed the expedition of summer 1875 into the Black Hills, accompanied by a military escort under Lt. Col. Richard I. Dodge. See
Utley, Frontier Regulars, 245.

11
.
Wakíchepa wi ‘fattening moon’ (referring to the buffalo
).

12
.
This Sun Dance took place midway between Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies
(Hyde, Spotted Tail’s Folk, 209).

13
.
The Sun Dance was the one time during the year when social norms for proper behavior were temporarily relaxed. In the interview transcript Black Elk mentions throwing chewed elm leaves on people who were dressed up, including older people, but he does not mention doing this to the dancers (Sixth Grandfather, 160). Since they were in a sacred state it seems unlikely that boys would play pranks on them
.

14
.
Pte
cala h
úya wi ‘calves grow hair month
.’

15
.
In summer 1875 the secretary of the interior appointed a commission
headed
by Sen. William H. Allison to negotiate for the relinquishment of the Black Hills. The commissioners met with representatives of the Sioux from September 20-28 at a location on the White River some eight miles east of Red Cloud Agency. The chiefs were unwilling to comply and the commissioners were forced to return to Washington and report their failure. See Olson,
Red Cloud and the Sioux
Problem, 201–13; Hyde, Red Cloud’s Folk, 239–46, Spotted Tail’s Folk, 211–15; Utley, Frontier Regulars, 247–48.

16
.
The Lakotas use the term thukášila ‘grandfather’ to designate both the President of the United States and the U. S. government in general
.

17
.
At this time, Black Elk’s people were in northwestern Nebraska, far east of the Bozeman Trail. Here they crossed the road between Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, and the gold mining camps in the Black Hills
.

18
.
The transcript is significantly different: “Then I went up into the Black Hills alone and had another vision under a tree and found out that the duty I was to do was to come to me and that I would probably save the Black Hills. It looked as though it were impossible, but I was anxious to perform my duty on earth
” (Sixth Grandfather, 164).

19
.
The expression “only crows and coyotes” is apparently Neihardt’s, since it does not occur in the transcript. See
Sixth
Grandfather, 164.

20
.
This sentence was added by Neihardt
.

21
.
The story of Crazy Horse’s rescue of his brother was added by Neihardt
.

22
.
Hump’s Lakota name, Ch
á
a ‘buffalo hump,’ is also translated as High Backbone. He was a Minneconjou and was only a few years older than Crazy Horse. Neihardt misunderstood the age difference; Black Elk does not mention it in the interview transcript. See Bray
, Crazy Horse, 13.

23
.
The material in this paragraph was added by Neihardt. In the interview transcript, Black Elk makes no mention of the meaning of Crazy Horse’s name
.

24
.
In 1870, Crazy Horse stole Black Buffalo Woman, the wife of No Water. In retaliation, No Water shot Crazy Horse in the jaw and reclaimed his wife (Sandoz
, Crazy Horse, 240-42;
Bray, Crazy
Horse, 143-47).
In the transcript, Black Elk makes no mention of this incident
.

25
.
The last part of this paragraph (”Maybe he was always.. .”)was added by Neihardt
.