Reviews
111
The
Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's Teachings
Given
to
John
G.
Neihardt.
Edited by
Raymond
J.
DeMallie. Lincoln: University
of Nebraska Press, 1984. 452
pp.
$19.95 Cloth.
In 1932
the
poet laureate John G. Neihardt novelized
the
life
and
visionary experience of
the
Oglala holy
man
Black Elk. The basis
for his book,
Black
Elk
Speaks,
was a series of interviews conducted
during
the
summer
of 1931
with
Black Elk
and,
initially,
other
Oglala elders. Later interviews
in
1944
would
be
used
by
Neihardt to write
When
the
Tree
Flowered.
Contained within these
recorded
conversations were Black Elk's teachings of Oglala
culture, history
and
one
man's
knowledge
of Oglala religious
expression.
These novels, particularly
Black
Elk
Speaks,
have
emerged
as a
canon
of
Native
American
religious
thought.
Despite
the
widespread
popularity of these works, their relevancy has never
been
fully ascertained.
The
Sixth Grandfather accomplishes this
task. For
the
first time
the
entire
body
of
the
original Black Elk-
Neihardt interviews has
been
transcribed, edited
and
annotated.
Much
of this material did
not
appear
in either book, making this
collection a valuable
addition
to
the
burgeoning
volumes
of
Lakota
ethnographic
literature. The editor,
in
this light, is to be
commended
for his interpretive
and
editorial efforts.
The
book
is divided into three major parts. In
Part
I DeMallie
succinctly places
the
life of Black Elk, his vision
and
Neihardt's
relationship
with
the
Oglala holy
man
into historical context.
Central to
comprehending
Black Elk as
an
historical
personage
is
his vision.
It
pervaded every aspect of his life
and
was
the
bind-
ing
force
by
which
Neihardt
and
Black Elk
entered
into each
others'
lives. As a
poet
Neihardt became the means for Black Elk
to convey his vision. For
Neihardt
the
teachings
that
Black Elk
transferred to
him
presented
a universal message
about
the
con-
dition of
humankind.
Neihardt
viewed
Black Elk's religious ex-
periences within
the
context of literary art. Despite
the
apparent
differences in interpretation
and
subsequent
motives,
both
men
strove to relate the beauty
and
spiritual qualities inherent in Black
Elk's message.
Part
II
presents
the
text of
the
1931 interviews from
which
Neihardt
wrote
Black
Elk
Speaks.
The interviews relay
the
story
of Black Elk's life from his early childhood, into his spiritual
awakening
and
concludes
with
Black Elk's
prayer
to
the
Six
112 AMERICAN INDIAN CULTURE
AND
RESEARCH JOURNAL
Grandfathers
on
top
of
Harney
Peak
in
the Black Hills. In his in-
troductory statements to these interviews DeMallie interprets his
vision
in
relation to Lakota religious practice. From this perspec-
tive
the
greatness
of Black Elk's vision lies
not
in
its
uniqueness
but
in
its representativeness.
It
synthesizes
religious
themes
in Lakota culture
and
balances all aspects of
the
Lakota world: destruction
and
renewal,
the
powers
of the
earth
and
sky
and
of
land
and
water,
the
four directions,
the
living
and
nonliving (both
dead
and
unborn).
Perhaps
its
most
striking feature
is
the representation of the circle of life
as enclosing a central tree, symbolizing regeneration,
with
crossed
roads
from
south
to
north
and
west
to
east, the former symbolizing life
and
harmony
and
col-
ored
red,
the
latter symbolizing warfare
and
destruc-
tion
and
colored black (p. 86).
Through
the
use of universal Lakota symbols the vision provides
a sacred framework
whereby
Black Elk conceptualized Lakota
history
and
his place within it. It is the interplay between his
own
life,
the
vision,
and
the historical context of these life cycle events
that
is
embodied
in
the
1931
interviews. Black Elk's life becomes
a
conduit
where
the
sacred
and
the
profane
of historical
events
are unified into a comprehensible course of events. That is, Black
Elk
viewed
his
own
life as
an
integral
component
of this sacred
history.
The final
part
of
The
Sixth Grandfather
has
the
1944 interviews
which
were
requested
by
Neihardt. For those of
us
interested
in
Lakota cultural
history
the
inclusion of
these
interviews is par-
ticularly
important.
Black Elk
presented
Neihardt
the
develop-
ment
of Lakota culture
through
a carefully selected
body
of
my
tho-historical
events
drawn
from a large
compendium
of
Lakota oral tradition. Just as
in
his teachings given to
Neihardt
in
1931, Black Elk
used
a cyclical temporal
pattern
to convey the
history of the Lakota nation.
He
infused much of the history with
mythic
themes
that
expressed
important
historical events. Black
Elk brilliantly led
Neihardt
from the origins of the Lakota Nation
to
the
formation of
other
Nations
through
geographical separa-
tion
and
linguistic diversification. From these original texts it is
possible to somewhat
comprehend
Lakota history as a social con-
tract for the formation of a Nation. Black Elk conceived of history
Reviews
113
not
as a series of
events
in chronological
order
but
as a series of
social demarcations
which
impacted
the
Lakota.
The
Sixth Grandfather
provides
an
excellent
data
base to com-
pare
N
eihardt'
s
published
works
with
the
original source
material. To this
end
the
editor
has
included
two
appendices
to
assist
the
interested reader.
Appendix
A indexes all
the
material
in
the
interviews to
the
appropriate
pages
in
Neihardt's
works.
Appendix
B is
an
orthography
which
was
used
in
standardizing
the
Lakota
words
found
in
the
interview notes. Both appendices
are extremely useful
and
are valuable research aids.
The
importance
of this
book
transcends
its value as a literary
tool.
The
Sixth
Grandfather
provides valuable insight into Lakota
culture as well as
the
symbolic complexity
and
richness of Lakota
religious
thought.
Aside from its obvious contribution to Lakota
ethnography,
The
Sixth Grandfather
remains
a remarkable
body
of teachings that deserves contemplation as a
way
of knowledge
and
not
just
mere
ethnographic
fact.
Gregory
R.
Campbell
University
of
Oklahoma
The Indian Frontier
of
the American West, 1846-1890.
By
Robert
M. Utley. Albuquerque: University of
New
Mexico Press, 1984.
325
pp.
$19.95 Cloth. $10.95
Paper.
Utley
has
produced
an
excellent contribution to
the
fine
Histories of
the
American Frontier Series. The
work
is
the
best
overview of military-Indian conflicts involving
the
expansion
of
the
frontier
in
the
Trans-Mississippi West
and
of
reformers'
ef-
forts to correct alleged abuses following
the
Civil War. Based
on
the
author's
wide
research
and
extensive reading, this
work
builds
on
his earlier
Frontiersmen
in
Blue
(1967)
and
Frontier
Regulars
(1973) as well as his collaborative
The
American
Heritage
History
of
the
Indian
Wars
(1977).
The
Indian
Frontier
of
the
American
West
culminates years of experience
in
the
West
and
scholarly
publishing
on
that
field.
Utley first introduces
the
reader
to a
broad
summary
of
tribalism
and
cultural
change
in
the
West, focusing
on
the
Nez
Perce
and
the Blackfeet. The author
then
surveys the foundations
of American
Indian
policy
in
the
decade
prior
to
the
Civil War,
examining
broad
themes
of
progress
and
assimilationist
