Black Elk Speaks - Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux

New York, NY, U.S.A.: Pocket Books - Washington Square Press, 1972. Mass Market Paperback. Fine. Standing Bear. 238 pages. Tight book with no marks or stamps. First Pocket Books Printing was April 1972 This is a 10th printing. This is the legendary Book of Visions of an American Indian. Color portrait of Black Elk on the cover. Black Elk offers an eloquent and profound vision of the unity of all creation, as told to Flaming Rainbow. Illustrated by 16 full-color and black and white paintings beginning on page 111 drawn by Standing Bear, the artist of the Oglala Sioux. Dedication is to What is goood in this book is given back to the six grandfathers and to the great men of my people. ---Black Elk. In 1931 an old man standing on Harney Mountain raised his arms and cried out these words O Make My People Live. His name was Black Elk, warrior and medicine man of the Oglala Sioux. From the Battle of the Little Big Horn, which he witnessed as a boy of 13 , to the last terrible massacre of the Indians at Wounded Knee. Black Elk lived the life of the Plains Indian and saw the death of his people. In this book he tells, as no man can ever tell it again, his vision of the meaning of life on this planet as it was for the Indian of the western plains, and as might be for all men. The great story of the Sioux is ended, and the sacred hoop of life is broken, but in this book the spirit of Black Elk's people lives on. Contents: Preface, The Offering of the Pipe, Early Boyhood, The Great Vision, The Bison Hunt, At The Soldiers' Town, High Horse's 'Courting, Wasichus In The Hills, The Fight With Three Stars, The Rubbing Out of Long Hair, Walking The Black Road, The Killing of Crazy Horse, Grandmother's Land, The Compelling Fear, The Horse Dance, The Dog Vision, Heyoka Ceremony, The Powers of the Bison And The Elk, Across The Big Water, The Spirit Journey, The Messiah, Visions of the Other World, Bad Trouble Coming, The Butchering At Wounded Knee, The End of the Dream, Author's Postscript and About This Book and its Author. There is a five page preface also written by John Neihardt.