CliffsNotes on Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks

Diane Prenatt

Black Elk Speaks is the story of Nicholas Black Elk, Lakota visionary and healer, and his people at the close of the nineteenth century. Black Elk grew up in a time when white settlers were invading his homeland, slaughtering buffalo herds, and threatening the Lakotas' way of life. Celebrated poet and writer John G. Neidhart tells this story of how the Lakotas' fought back from the triumph at Little Bighorn to the tragedy at Wounded Knee. Black Elk Speaks has been regarded as a collaborative autobiography, a history of a Native American nation, and a spiritual testament for all humankind. This concise supplement to Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks helps students understand the overall structure of the novel, actions and motivations of the characters, and the social and cultural perspectives of the author.