![]() ![]() To help his cousin, Red Deer advised High Horse on two separate occasions to sneak into the girl’s teepee and make off with her, both attempts ended as comical failures.įinally, in a fit of disgust and embarrassment, High Horse proclaimed that he was going on the warpath since he could not have the girl. The disclosure by the girl only acted to frustrate High Horse more, and he eventually had to turn to his cousin Red Deer for help. Eventually, High Horse did made contact with the girl and learned of her similar feelings for him, but also learned that she wished to be earned from her father like a lady and not to be stolen away dishonorably. ![]() High Horse neither possessed the respect nor the wealth to obtain this girl from her parents, so he had to resort to stealth and trickery to gain any access to her at all. High Horse’s Courting begins when a youth named High Horse falls madly in love with a girl of his tribe. Typically, Black Elk’s narratives try to bestow a lesson (or lessons) that the listener can learn from, just as the subject of the story sometimes does. The story of High Horse’s Courting stands out as a perfect example of one of Black Elk’s narratives. Most important in these lessons on the nature of man was wisdom, and in all of Black Elk’s recollections somewhere a deeper wisdom can be found. Through these stories, greater insight can be gained into the ways of the Sioux, as well as lessons into the nature of all men. These stories ran the whole gambit of life experiences from the most innocent acts of a boy in love, to the hard lessons learned from the treachery of the whites. The wisdom possessed by Black Elk is immediately present in his recollections of various lessons learned by himself and by others. It is from the strength of this vision, and the wisdom in his heart that Black Elk eventually realized his place as a leader and wise man in the Ogalala band of the Sioux. Restoring Neihardt's reputation as a faithful witness to Black Elk's sacred landscape, Interpreting the Legacy: John Neihardt and Black Elk Speaks will be of interest to Neihardt scholars and students of literature, religious studies, and Native American studies.Black Elk’s childhood vision stayed with him throughout his life, and it offered him aid and wisdom whenever he sought it. ![]() Through exhaustive research into Neihardt's biographical materials, published philosophical and metaphysical writings, and volumes of taped lectures, Holloway examines the sources of the book's production as well as the reactions to and the implications of his literary portrayal of the spiritual world of the Oglala. ![]() Using Neihardt's original handwritten notes and early manuscript drafts, Holloway demonstrates the poet's careful and deliberate re-creation of Black Elk's spiritual world in order to induce a transcendent experience in the reader. In this book, Brian Holloway offers a rather different view, making a convincing case that Neihardt quite consciously attempted to use his literary craftsmanship to provide the reader with direct and immediate access to the teachings of the Oglala elder. Neihardt's work has recently been critiqued by scholars who maintain that the author filtered and corrupted Black Elk's teachings through a European spiritual and political lens. Ambitious and provocative, Interpreting the Legacy: John Neihardt and Black Elk Speaks is a new study of the classic spiritual text that is sure to spark debate. ![]()
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