Black Elk Speaks Themes

Black Elk Speaks tells the story of Black Elk, a Lakota medicine man, warrior, and spiritual leader, as he reflects on the increasingly violent conflicts between the Lakota and white settlers that were the backdrop for his spiritual development and coming of age. In addition to the horrible physical violence that white settlers and soldiers inflicted on the Lakota people, white settlers’ westward expansion also resulted in the clashing of two strikingly different cultures…

Publicly performed ceremonies are an important part of Lakota culture: ritualized ceremonies like the sun dance are critical ways for Lakota people to acquire spiritual “power” and “endurance.” Black Elk Speaks frames ceremonies as more than symbolic, spiritual gestures, however. The ceremonies that Black Elk highlights in his narrative suggest that ceremony can elicit real change on the world by allowing its participants and observers to form new perspectives of reality, ultimately inspiring them to…

Alienation was a central feature of the Native American experience in the 19th century. As Wasichu (white) colonizers violently forced their ideologies and way of life on Native peoples, Sioux like Black Elk found it increasingly difficult to adhere to the cultural practices that gave their communities a sense of purpose and spiritual meaning. As Wasichu culture became the dominant culture, Indians felt like outsiders in their own land. Black Elk Speaks explores the idea…

Black Elk’s status as a visionary and medicine man made him something of a mediating figure between the physical world and the spiritual world, but the growing physical presence of white settlers and colonizers on Indian land complicated this role. Repeatedly, Black Elk Speaks suggests that the Wasichus’ (white peoples’) presence, and the violence and setbacks that accompanied it, stood in the way of Black Elk’s task of realizing his vision and restoring…