Black Elk’s father Character Analysis in Black Elk Speaks

Black Elk’s father is also named Black Elk; he is a medicine man and a cousin to Crazy Horse. Black Elk’s father was injured in the Fetterman Fight in 1866. Although Black Elk’s father isn’t an especially developed character, Black Elk shows how instrumental his father’s instruction is to his development as a hunter and warrior. Many of Black Elk’s interactions with his father occur when they are hunting together. Black Elk’s father is loyal to his family; for example, when his nephew, Black Wasichu, is killed in the Battle of Little Bighorn, he and Black Wasichu’s father retaliate by butchering a Wasichu (white) soldier. Like Black Elk, Black Elk’s father believes it is his people’s responsibility to defend their land. For this reason, he reveres Crazy Horse’s bravery and condemns Red Cloud, finding Red Cloud’s willingness to sell the Black Hills to the Wasichus “cheap.”

Black Elk’s father Quotes in Black Elk Speaks

The Black Elk Speaks quotes below are all either spoken by Black Elk’s father or refer to Black Elk’s father. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

).

Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking.

Related Characters: Black Elk (speaker), Black Elk’s father, Drinks Water

Page Number and Citation: 7

Explanation and Analysis:

Then I was sitting up; and I was sad because my mother and my father didn’t seem to know I had been so far away.

Related Characters: Black Elk (speaker), Black Elk’s father, White Cow Sees / Black Elk’s mother

Page Number and Citation: 29

Explanation and Analysis:

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.

Related Characters: Black Elk (speaker), Black Elk’s father, White Cow Sees / Black Elk’s mother

Page Number and Citation: 31

Explanation and Analysis:

Black Elk’s father Quotes in Black Elk Speaks

The Black Elk Speaks quotes below are all either spoken by Black Elk’s father or refer to Black Elk’s father. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

).

Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking.

Related Characters: Black Elk (speaker), Black Elk’s father, Drinks Water

Page Number and Citation: 7

Explanation and Analysis:

Then I was sitting up; and I was sad because my mother and my father didn’t seem to know I had been so far away.

Related Characters: Black Elk (speaker), Black Elk’s father, White Cow Sees / Black Elk’s mother

Page Number and Citation: 29

Explanation and Analysis:

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.

Related Characters: Black Elk (speaker), Black Elk’s father, White Cow Sees / Black Elk’s mother

Page Number and Citation: 31

Explanation and Analysis: