BLACK ELK SPEAKS : BEING THE LIFE STORY OF A HOLY MAN OF THE OGALALA SIOUX

New York: William Morrow and Company, 1932. First Edition. Hardcover. Good only. Standing Bear. Octavo, 8.75 in. x 6 in., pp. xv, [3], 280. Illustrated with color decorations to title page and fifteen color and black and white plates by Standing Bear. Burgundy cloth-covered boards with gilt teepee to front and gilt title to spine. Significant sunning and moisture stains to boards. Light warping to boards. Previous owner's signature in ink to front free endpaper. Front hinge tender; back hinge showing. Light tide lines to upper and lower margins of pages throughout. In the summer of 1930... John G. Neihardt, an American poet and Nebraska poet-laureate, received the necessary permission from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to go to the Pine Ridge Reservation...to meet an Oglala Lakota medicine man named Black Elk. Once there, Neihardt interviews the holy man and takes down his story, which included at age 13, being part of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and later surviving the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre.

Black Elk spoke in Lakota and Black Elk's son, Ben Black Elk, who was present during the talks, translated his father's words into English. His intention was to talk to someone who had participated in the Ghost Dance.

Neihardt recounts that Black Elk invited him back for interviews. Flying Hawk served as their translator. Neihardt writes that Black Elk told him of his visions, including one in which he saw himself as a "sixth grandfather" - the spiritual representative of the earth and of mankind. Neihardt also states that Black Elk shared some of the Oglala rituals which he had performed as a healer, and that two men developed a close friendship. ..... While the book is lauded by non-Native audiences, and has been inspirational to many New Age groups, some Lakota people and Native American scholars do not consider the book to be representative of Lakota beliefs. They have questioned the accuracy of the account, which has elements of a collaborative autobiography, spiritual text, and other genres. The Indiana University professor Raymond DeMallie, who has studied the Lakota by cultural and linguistic resources, published "The Sixth Grandfather" in 1985 including the original transcripts of the conversations with Black Elk, plus his own introduction, analysis and notes. He has questioned whether Neihardt's account is accurate and fully represents the views or words of Black Elk. (from WIKIPEDIA).