The Sacred Tree : Black Elk, Colonialism and Lakota Catholicism

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The Sacred Tree : Black Elk, Colonialism and Lakota Catholicism The Sacred Tree: Black Elk, Colonialism and Lakota Catholicism Thesis Submitted to the College of Arts & Science of the University of Dayton In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts Degree in the Department of Religious Studies By Damian M. Costello University of Dayton Dayton, Ohio October 2003 Approved by: Faculty Advisor Faculty Reader Faculty Reader Chairperson TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. Introduction..................................................................................................... 1 II. Missionaries and Colonialism........................................................................16 III. Anthropological Discrimination....................................................................41 IV. Western Systemization and Lakota Agency..................................................65 V. Black Elk’s Vision and Biblical Imagery.......................................................86 VI. Misinterpreting the Vision...................................................... 142 VII. Colonialism, the Holy Man, and Christianity............................................175 VIII. Postcolonialism, The End of Western Romanticism and One Black Elk ....................................................................................................................... 195 BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................................................................................207 i ABSTRACT Black Elk, Oglala holy man and subject of the infamous book Black Elk Speaks, was also a convert to the Catholic Church. This study examines the implications of Black Elk’s conversion and challenges the assumptions many scholars and popular culture uses to dismiss the significance of his Catholic life. Within the framework of postcolonial theory, this study hopes to deconstruct the modem western assumptions that present Black Elk as a “noble savage” unable to face the ravages of colonialism. In contrast, I argue that Black Elk was an active agent fulfilling his role as a holy man. Black Elk’s conversion was in continuity with the dynamics of Lakota culture and provided new power to challenge the dominance of colonialism. Most importantly, this study uses linguistic analysis of the Dakota Bible to argue that Black Elk’s great vision is in fact a Christian narrative. As a consequence, the Black Elk described by Neihardt and the Lakota Catechist remembered by the Lakota community are not contradictory but one consistent agent. ii Chapter One: Introduction Lakota History and Culture In Pre-Columbian times the Lakota inhabited the woodlands east of the Missouri River, in the area west of the Great Lakes. In the sixteenth century, the Iroquois in the New York area obtained European weapons and began a military expansion westward. The Iroquois displaced the tribes of the Great Lakes regions, such as the Ojibway, who in turn gradually pushed against the eastern territory of the Dakota. European and consequent American colonial expansion exacerbated this ripple effect. Over the course of two centuries, western Dakota people migrated from the woodlands to the Midwest plains and became the Lakota. They separated into seven main bands: Oglala, Brule, Hunkpapa, Mnikowoju, Black Foot, Two Kettle and Sans Arcs.1 The Lakota acquired horses in 1750 and crossed the Missouri River in 1775. Through armed conflict, the Lakota pushed the Kiowa and Crow tribes out of the Black Hills, which became the 2 sacred center of the Lakota world. The Lakota transformed their semi-sedentary woodland economy to a nomadic culture to match their new environment. The Lakota based this new economy on the buffalo. The buffalo provided all necessities of life not obtained through trade. Even the buffalo hides provided the currency for trade goods. The Lakota spent the summers in nomadic fashion, following the herds across the plains, and the winters in the sheltered valleys of the Black Hills. In the mid-nineteenth century, the increasing American presence on the plains provoked armed conflict against the Lakota. The U.S. government waged intermittent war with the Lakota from 1855 to 1890, pursuing a policy of reservation confinement. Through much coercion, deception and the complete destruction of the buffalo herds, the U.S. government finally forced 1 Clyde Holler, Black Elk’s Religion: The Sun Dance and Lakota Catholicism (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1995), XXV. 1 the Lakota to settle on seven separate reservations in the present day states of North and South Dakota. Black Elk’s Life Until Wounded Knee Black Elk’s life spans the Lakota change from a plains culture into a reservation culture. Black Elk was bom into the Oglala Lakota in December of 1863, on the Powder River, probably within the borders of present day Wyoming. His father was a medicine man and cousin of the great Crazy Horse. When he was nine years old he had a great vision. One night, while settling down for camp, Black Elk heard a voice saying, ‘“It is time, now they are calling you.’” The next day, while starting out on horseback, he collapsed with a great sickness. While lying in a tipi, he saw two men coming from the sky saying, “Hurry up, your grandfather is calling you.” He was taken up to the clouds where he visited the spirit world where his “grandfathers [were] having a council.”23 During the course of his visit, the six grandfathers brought Black Elk to the different regions of the spirit world: the four directions, the cloud tipi of the six grandfathers, the black sacred road from west to east, the red sacred road from south to north, and the center of the earth. At the center of the nation’s hoop the sacred tree was established. The six grandfathers also gave Black Elk two specific powers: the power to heal and the power to destroy. I remember that the grandfather of the west had given me a wooden cup of water and a bow and arrow and with this bow and arrow I was going to destroy the enemy with the power of the fearful road. With the wooden cup of water I was to save mankind. This water was clear and with it I was to raise a nation (like medicine).4 2 Michael F. Steltenkamp, Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993), 9-10. 3 Raymond J. DeMallie, The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984), 4, 111, 114, 115. 4 Ibid., 119. 2 The vision of the six grandfathers changed Black Elk’s life. The vision was a call to become a wicasa wakan, a “holy man.”5 This made Black Elk responsible for the survival and prosperity of his people on earth, for “a nation [Black Elk] shall create.” Black Elk believed that he was “appointed by [his] vision to be an intercessor of [his] people with the spirit powers.”6 7 Black Elk was called to create a nation, bring his people on the sacred road into the sacred hoop, and make the sacred tree bloom by using the power he received from the six grandfathers. Black Elk interpreted his life through this message and continually tried to find the way that best corresponded to his vision. Black Elk grew up during the Lakota Wars. He witnessed the Battle of Little Big Hom and killed an American soldier at the age of thirteen. He was among the last of the Lakota to surrender, living for three years with Sitting Bull’s band in Canada. After Sitting Bull surrendered in 1881, Black Elk settled on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation which became his home for the remainder of his life. The Lakota, separated from the plains economy, were forced to take up ranching and farming.8 In 1886, Black Elk took the opportunity to travel with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show with a two-year contract. The show traveled to New York City in the winter of 1886 and then to London in the spring of 1887. Black Elk also visited France, Germany, and Italy with a show run by Mexican Joe. He had gone to explore “the ways of the white men,” and if any of these ways were better, he “would like to see my people live that way.”9 During his time in Europe, he encounters Christianity for the first time. While in Europe, Black Elk wrote a letter to the Iapi Oaye (the “Word Carrier”), a monthly newspaper in Lakota under the Indian Mission of the 5 There are various spellings of Lakota words. I have tried follow the pattern of the most recent scholarship, but some quotations will have variant spellings. 6 DeMallie, The Sixth Grandfather, 293. 7 Ibid., 126, 293. 3 Presbyterian and Congregational Churches, dated February 15, 1888. He wrote of his trip and what he learned of the white man’s customs. “One custom is very good. Whoever believes in God will find good ways - that is what I mean.”810 9 Black Elk Returns from Europe In 1889 Black Elk returned to Pine Ridge. That fall, messengers brought the Lakota news of Wovoka the Messiah. Wovoka was a Paiute from Nevada, who taught that by practicing the Ghost Dance, the whites would disappear, the buffalo would return and all would be like the olden times.11 12After 13 a long period of cautious investigation, Black Elk joined the Ghost Dancers due to the strong connection between the imagery of his vision and the Ghost Dance. The Ghost Dance culminated in the Wounded Knee Massacre, in which American troops killed around 260 Lakota. In the days that followed, Black Elk participated in the battles with the U.S. Army. 12 After the fighting, Black Elk settled down and married Katie War Bonnet in 1892. For the next fourteen years, Black Elk worked as a store clerk and ayuwipi healer. It is likely that his wife became Catholic during this period. Also, his three sons were baptized: William and John in 1895, and Ben in 1899.14 His role as ayuwipi man brought him into conflict with the Catholic presence on the reservation. John Lone Goose, who worked with Black Elk as a catechist, states: I first met Nick around 1900 - when I was a young boy and he was not a Catholic.
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