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The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt
In Black Elk Speaks and When the Tree Flowered , John C. Neihardt recorded the teachings of the Oglala holy man Black Elk, who had, in a vision, seen himself as the "sixth grandfather," the spiritual representative of the earth and of mankind. Raymond J. DeMallie makes available for the first time the transcripts from Neihardt's interviews with Black Elk in 1931 and 1944, which formed the basis for the two books. His introduction offers new insights into the life of Black Elk.
452 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1984
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 21, 2012
"The Sixth Grandfather" offers an annotated presentation of the raw transcripts of the testimony of the Lakota medicine man Black Elk to the poet and amateur ethnographer John Neihardt.
These dialogs are better known by Neihardt's poeticized rendition in the book "Black Elk Speaks." In my review of that book, I discuss the pervasive and serious distortions that mar it, and for this reason I enthusiastically recommend "The Sixth Grandfather" instead.
Black Elk lived the kind of life that no one would believe, if it were made up. Born to an Oglala Lakota family in Wyoming in the late nineteenth century, Black Elk lived a traditional life in camps pitched with tipis on the forests and plains, hunting buffalo and resisting the encroachment of white settlers in the region.
At the age of nine, he fell into a coma for twelve days, during which time he experienced what he would subsequently call his "Great Vision," in which he traveled up into the sky and met with the Six Grandfathers, partial personifications of the Great Spirit who dwell in the six directions (north, south, east, west, up, and down). As he took leave of the Grandfathers, he gradually realized that the sixth grandfather, the lord of the earth below, was he himself.
He awoke with the conviction that he had a sacred mandate and duty to restore his people to health and power, and spent the rest of his life with that vision as a spiritual and moral reference point, asking himself at various points along the way how important experiences fit into his vision, and suffering the frequent anxiety that he was not fulfilling his charge.
His vision is paradigmatic of the shamanic initiatory experience of great distribution, and were this book nothing more than an account of this extraordinary episode and how he viewed it at different stages of his life, the book would be an invaluable document.
But the book is more - much more.
Black Elk was fearless in his desire to know the world and to be a part of it, and his hunger for adventure brought him into close contact with a series of historical events of great importance. He was present at the Battle of Little Big Horn, and fought against Custer's army. He learned the Ghost Dance when it spread to the plains, and was at Wounded Knee, where again, he fought. He joined up with Buffalo Bill's Wild West tour, and, having never been off the range, traveled to New York City to perform for months to sell-out crowds at Madison Square Garden. And he sailed across the sea, and was one of a handful of performers to dance before Queen Victoria at her Golden Jubilee.
It is simply incredible, to read about all of these events described first-hand, from the perspective of a character you come to know and understand. He describes these events in a plain, declarative style, with alacrity and care.
And it is moving - profoundly moving - to see him struggle with the meaning of the incredible things he saw, and his role in the events. It is heartbreaking to connect with his sense of sorrow as his people, and their way of life, and their relatives, the buffalo, are swept away by an infinite sea of white people.
There aren't many books that I believe should pretty much be read by everyone, but this is one of them. It is a truly incredible experience.
These dialogs are better known by Neihardt's poeticized rendition in the book "Black Elk Speaks." In my review of that book, I discuss the pervasive and serious distortions that mar it, and for this reason I enthusiastically recommend "The Sixth Grandfather" instead.
Black Elk lived the kind of life that no one would believe, if it were made up. Born to an Oglala Lakota family in Wyoming in the late nineteenth century, Black Elk lived a traditional life in camps pitched with tipis on the forests and plains, hunting buffalo and resisting the encroachment of white settlers in the region.
At the age of nine, he fell into a coma for twelve days, during which time he experienced what he would subsequently call his "Great Vision," in which he traveled up into the sky and met with the Six Grandfathers, partial personifications of the Great Spirit who dwell in the six directions (north, south, east, west, up, and down). As he took leave of the Grandfathers, he gradually realized that the sixth grandfather, the lord of the earth below, was he himself.
He awoke with the conviction that he had a sacred mandate and duty to restore his people to health and power, and spent the rest of his life with that vision as a spiritual and moral reference point, asking himself at various points along the way how important experiences fit into his vision, and suffering the frequent anxiety that he was not fulfilling his charge.
His vision is paradigmatic of the shamanic initiatory experience of great distribution, and were this book nothing more than an account of this extraordinary episode and how he viewed it at different stages of his life, the book would be an invaluable document.
But the book is more - much more.
Black Elk was fearless in his desire to know the world and to be a part of it, and his hunger for adventure brought him into close contact with a series of historical events of great importance. He was present at the Battle of Little Big Horn, and fought against Custer's army. He learned the Ghost Dance when it spread to the plains, and was at Wounded Knee, where again, he fought. He joined up with Buffalo Bill's Wild West tour, and, having never been off the range, traveled to New York City to perform for months to sell-out crowds at Madison Square Garden. And he sailed across the sea, and was one of a handful of performers to dance before Queen Victoria at her Golden Jubilee.
It is simply incredible, to read about all of these events described first-hand, from the perspective of a character you come to know and understand. He describes these events in a plain, declarative style, with alacrity and care.
And it is moving - profoundly moving - to see him struggle with the meaning of the incredible things he saw, and his role in the events. It is heartbreaking to connect with his sense of sorrow as his people, and their way of life, and their relatives, the buffalo, are swept away by an infinite sea of white people.
There aren't many books that I believe should pretty much be read by everyone, but this is one of them. It is a truly incredible experience.
May 23, 2011
Great book, wild adventure. An incredible first person recounting of historical events, mixed with critical review and study of Black Elk's vision by the Author. The whole of the vision itself goes through its own bouts of being incredible fascinating and also very obtuse. But after reading through some of the harder - drier parts, this book really offers a lot. The history of Black Elk leading up to and his life after his great vision are incredibly fascinating, tragic and beautiful. Some of my favorite parts are the interaction of writer John G. Neihardt with the now really old Ben Black Elk and friends.
August 26, 2011
The Sixth Grandfather is the stenographic record of the interviews of Lakota medicine man Nicholas Black Elk conducted by John G. Neihardt in 1931 and 1944—300 pages compiled and edited by Raymond J. DeMallie. It is a fascinating chronicle that includes eye-witness accounts of Custer’s last stand, the advent of the Ghost Dance, the Wounded Knee massacre, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and the Lakota way of life prior to confinement on the Reservation. It is introduced by DeMallie with a hundred pages about Black Elk and Neihardt that compares Neihardt’s famous work, Black Elk Speaks, with the stenographic record.
I first heard about Black Elk back in 1971 in a televised interview of Neihardt by Dick Cavett on the Dick Cavet Show. That interview sparked renewed nation-wide interest in Black Elk Speaks, first published in 1932. I’ve had Black Elk Speaks in my hands a few times, but have never been able to stay with it for more than a few pages. When that happens with an acknowledged great work, it’s usually because the author is answering questions I haven’t got around to asking.
Recently, I happened onto Raymond DeMallie’s work, The Sixth Grandfather, and I was hooked. I thoroughly enjoyed reading unfiltered the words of Black Elk and the few other Lakota elders who participated in the interviews. Those words are an urgently needed corrective to what you imagine you know about the Lakota way of life if your primary source of information is The Little Big Man or Dances with Wolves.
I took special delight in reading The Sixth Grandfather as a test of René Girard’s anthological theories in I See Satan Fall like Lightning. That book of Girard’s is a must-read book, and by my reckoning, there is ample raw data in The Sixth Grandfather to support Girard’s theories.
An important part of Black Elk’s story is told by DeMallie in the Introduction, and becomes the subtext for the interviews. When he was still a young man, Black Elk converted to Catholicism, and became a well-know, well-traveled, well-respected catechist of the Roman Catholic Church. Essentially, he operated as a lay pastor. For many long years, he had put away all the practices of traditional Lakota religion, apparently forever, until his chance meeting with Neihardt. Or was it a chance meeting?
Other questions arise as well. Was Black Elk’s embracing of Catholicism an authentic conversion? Was he only making the best of a bad situation? Did he always see an essential harmony between Catholic teaching and the Lakota way of life? Had he always been waiting for the moment when he could entrust to the larger human family the vision that had been entrusted to him by his Lakota ancestors?
By raising those questions, this important work of anthropology crosses genres, and reads very well as mystery.
I first heard about Black Elk back in 1971 in a televised interview of Neihardt by Dick Cavett on the Dick Cavet Show. That interview sparked renewed nation-wide interest in Black Elk Speaks, first published in 1932. I’ve had Black Elk Speaks in my hands a few times, but have never been able to stay with it for more than a few pages. When that happens with an acknowledged great work, it’s usually because the author is answering questions I haven’t got around to asking.
Recently, I happened onto Raymond DeMallie’s work, The Sixth Grandfather, and I was hooked. I thoroughly enjoyed reading unfiltered the words of Black Elk and the few other Lakota elders who participated in the interviews. Those words are an urgently needed corrective to what you imagine you know about the Lakota way of life if your primary source of information is The Little Big Man or Dances with Wolves.
I took special delight in reading The Sixth Grandfather as a test of René Girard’s anthological theories in I See Satan Fall like Lightning. That book of Girard’s is a must-read book, and by my reckoning, there is ample raw data in The Sixth Grandfather to support Girard’s theories.
An important part of Black Elk’s story is told by DeMallie in the Introduction, and becomes the subtext for the interviews. When he was still a young man, Black Elk converted to Catholicism, and became a well-know, well-traveled, well-respected catechist of the Roman Catholic Church. Essentially, he operated as a lay pastor. For many long years, he had put away all the practices of traditional Lakota religion, apparently forever, until his chance meeting with Neihardt. Or was it a chance meeting?
Other questions arise as well. Was Black Elk’s embracing of Catholicism an authentic conversion? Was he only making the best of a bad situation? Did he always see an essential harmony between Catholic teaching and the Lakota way of life? Had he always been waiting for the moment when he could entrust to the larger human family the vision that had been entrusted to him by his Lakota ancestors?
By raising those questions, this important work of anthropology crosses genres, and reads very well as mystery.
July 18, 2019
This was actually transcribed from the notes taken for "Black Elk Speaks."
November 4, 2024
Felt more like a memoir than teachings
May 7, 2025
I enjoyed reading the introduction and the dream sequence the best
October 21, 2022
Native American history
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews