Black Elk Speaks

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of being a wichasha wakon or holy man like his predecessors. Black
Elk's childhood vision stayed with him throughout his life, and it offered him
aid and wisdom whenever he sought it. 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.
The wisdom possessed by Black Elk is immediately present in his
recollections of various lessons learned by himself and by others. These stories
ran the whole gambit of life experiences from the most innocent acts of a boy in
love, to the hard les-sons learned from the treachery of the whites. Through
these stories a greater insight can be gained into the ways of the Sioux, as
well as lessons into the nature of all men. 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.
The story of High Horse's Courting stands out as a perfect ...

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guarding
the Crow horses, and each made off with a small herd for himself.
Returning to the tribe with his new herd, High Horse immediately rode up
to the girl's family teepee. When shown the herd of horses that High Horse
offered the girl's father acquiesced and allowed him to have his daughter, but
not solely because of the amount of horses High Horse had offered. Instead the
father revealed that the true price High Horse paid was in his showing that he
was a man in obtaining the horses in such a skillful manner, and thus able to
take care of his only daughter.
Thus the lessons of life are displayed to the listener of the story.
High Horse gets the girl through persistence and brave ...

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