Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala

by Michael F. Steltenkamp

This biography of Black Elk is based on extensive interviews with Lucy Looks Twice, the holy man’s last surviving child, as well as others who knew him personally. Michael F. Steltenkamp sheds new light on the figure portrayed in Black Elk Speaks as a victim of Western subjugation, doomed to live out his life as a relic of the past. Instead, Steltenkamp reveals that in 1904 Black Elk was baptized a Catholic and subsequently served as a devoted catechist and missionary to his fellow American Indians until his death in 1950.  

Genres: Catholic, Religion, Biography

240 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1993

Reviews

[Rex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first book on Nicholas Black Elk; an odd choice, I now realize, as its purpose is expressly supplemental and revisionist. Earlier books (most notably the popular Black Elk Speaks) romanticized Black Elk as a relic of a vanishing way of life, an aloof visionary. Even today, he is often presented as an icon of Native revival. Steltenkamp's interviews with Black Elk's daughter Lucy and others close to him provide a better-rounded picture. Black Elk did not sit around after Wounded Knee mourning the old ways; for decades until his death he was an enthusiastic and well-loved religious leader in the Lakota Catholic community.

The failure to tell this part of the story, Steltenkamp suggests, not only renders opaque many of Black Elk's recorded words and visions, but others and condemns the Lakota in popular imagination "to a lingering depression, a grueling and tortuous assimilation, or perhaps (many hope) a new cultural synthesis somehow congruent with a more 'glorious' past." Black Elk did not characterize himself as a victim, nor as a prophet of revival. He endured the wounds inflicted on the Lakota and found a meaningful path forward (the Ghost Dance, and later Christianity) which he did not regard as compromising his cultural integrity. As a catechist and elder, he helped many others of his generation do the same. Steltenkamp's Black Elk is a holy man, but a Catholic through and through.

Those who are hoping for a complete biography of Black Elk will have to look elsewhere (perhaps to Steltenkamp's later book). I was particularly interested in Black Elk's catechesis, but apart from his use of the Catholic Ladder, details are sparing. And of course, it seems I must go back and read the much-criticized Black Elk Speaks if I am to get the words that made Black Elk famous in the first place. But there is plenty of appreciable material here, and as a corrective to earlier treatments of the man, it is undoubtedly needed.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The academic style of this book is a little dry, but I'm glad I persevered. I ended up learning a lot-- both about an interesting historical figure and the way that his story was shaped. It reminded me that truth about historical events and figures is usually much more nuanced than popular presentations suggest. I was moved by Black Elk's spiritual witness and learned a lot about the Lakota worldview, even though I found the book itself to be a more challenging read.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about Black Elk's "second life" . It attempts to repair the "damage" done to Black Elk's reputation by Neidhardt's BLACK ELK SPEAKS. Neidhardt apparently embellished Black Elk's words and completely ignored the last sixty years of the man's life as a Catholic convert and religious zealot (I can't exactly blame him.)

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steltenkamp does an excellent job of telling the story of Black Elk's life after his work as a medicine man, which is often forgotten in narratives and accounts of his life. Worth reading simply for the direct quotes from Black Elk's daughter, friends, and other relatives.

[Frank Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book and honest conveyance of Black Elk and his desires for his family and community