That Black Elk later became a Christian catechist is largely unknown to those who prefer to focus only on his pre-Christian paganism.
He spent more years as a Christian than he did as a pagan.
And was none the less Sioux for it.
I am from Nebraska.
I read “Black Elk Speaks” in college, and was rather surprised that it didn’t go into his conversion to Christianity. The homestead used to be by a place called The Tower of the Four Winds in Blair. There is a huge cross, with the symbols from Elk’s visions arranged around it.
We new growing up that he was a Christian, and led many other Indians to Christ. Some were the grandparents of the parents of my friends as a kid.
When I was traveling, I was on a flight to New Mexico. There was a man in Native dress reading the book. I mentioned that I grew up near the Tower, and about Black Elk’s later life. He was very surprised. The fact that the book is used in some circles as a pagan text is pretty sad to me.
‘He spent more years as a Christian than he did as a pagan.
And was none the less Sioux for it.’
Indeed, as did the great chief Red Cloud who can be listed as one of the few to have successfully defeated the US Army.