Black Elk was a leader among his people during the latter half of the 19th century. Although he is not as widely recognized as other leaders of the time including Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, Black Elk had a key part in helping his people hold onto hope even in their dire situation. While most people’s idea of progress in the late 1800’s regarding the so called “Indian problem” involved assimilation or outright eliminating them from the map, Black Elk’s definition of progress was significantly different. He was determined to try to help his people survive and overcome the horrors that were being inflicted upon them by the European settlers. He did this in a number of different ways. One of the key was through the use of a number of visions
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At the age of nine Black Elk became very sick. While he was sick he had a vision where he met the six great powers of the universe. The great powers gave him the tools and knowledge he would need in order to save his people. When he came to from his vision he knew that he needed to do the Grandfather’s bidding to help his people, however as a nine year old boy he was extremely unsure of how to go about this. In the weeks following the vision he spent much time trying to determine how to best lead his people through the darkness and achieve progress. Due to his age however, his visions would temporarily give way to more physical rather than spiritual …show more content…
He felt himself being called more and more to fulfill the grandfather’s with to lead his people to prosperity. After he recreated the first great vision he had in real life, Black Elk was able to restore a spark that his people lost. They were once again proud to be who they were and found new happiness in life. While Black Elk seems to downplay the effect that this new dance had on his people it is very likely that more of his people’s culture would have been lost due to the harsh conditions that they were forced to live in. In the end this dance and the others like it were more than likely for at least a partial amount of the Native American culture that has persisted to this day. While Black Elk may not have achieved his full definition of progress he was still able to bring his people more than a few steps in the right
At the age of nine Black Elk became very sick. While he was sick he had a vision where he met the six great powers of the universe. The great powers gave him the tools and knowledge he would need in order to save his people. When he came to from his vision he knew that he needed to do the Grandfather’s bidding to help his people, however as a nine year old boy he was extremely unsure of how to go about this. In the weeks following the vision he spent much time trying to determine how to best lead his people through the darkness and achieve progress. Due to his age however, his visions would temporarily give way to more physical rather than spiritual …show more content…
He felt himself being called more and more to fulfill the grandfather’s with to lead his people to prosperity. After he recreated the first great vision he had in real life, Black Elk was able to restore a spark that his people lost. They were once again proud to be who they were and found new happiness in life. While Black Elk seems to downplay the effect that this new dance had on his people it is very likely that more of his people’s culture would have been lost due to the harsh conditions that they were forced to live in. In the end this dance and the others like it were more than likely for at least a partial amount of the Native American culture that has persisted to this day. While Black Elk may not have achieved his full definition of progress he was still able to bring his people more than a few steps in the right