InTheTemazcal

Image Source: Pixabay "My friend, I am going to tell you the story of my life, as you wish; and if it were only the story of my life I think I would not tell it; for what is one man that he should make much of his winters, even when they bend him like a heavy snow? So many other men have lived and shall live that story, to be grass upon the hills." from  Black Elk Speaks John G. Neihardt opened his most successful book, Black Elk Speaks  with his own words, expressing them in the sense of Black Elk's "mood and manner" for telling his life story (Neihardt 2008). The book reaches us, the readers, as a collaborative effort of many participants, with Black Elk speaking as the Lakota holy man and Neihardt as the poetic writer. The former told the saga, while the latter orchestrated its transcription, translation, and publication, sending a united voice to the universe. The book's first six paragraphs, in Chapter One, "The Offering of the Pipe,...

The book, Black Elk Speaks, as seen on Amazon.com This year, as the winter solstice graces us, we're initiating the celebration of the new solar year by reviewing Black Elk and John G. Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks (1932).Winter solstice marks the longest evening of the solar year and occurs during the final quarter of  Wanícokan Wi * ,  or   the Moon When the Deer Shed their Antlers. On the Gregorian calendar, that's on or near the 22 nd of December. Remembering with Nebraska Black Elk, a holy man of the Oglala Lakota, saw his vision in the Black Hills region west of Nebraska. During the  Waníyetu Wi , or the Moon of the Rutting deer, the Nebraskan reading program, One Book One Nebraska (OBON), announced its 2017 selection: John G. Neihardt's  Black Elk Speaks . OBON aims to demonstrate ... "... how books and reading connect people across time and place. Each year, Nebraska communities come together through literature in community-wide reading...