Josh Braley
Book Portfolio Q 4
Period 1
Black Elk Speaks
The book i read is "Black Elk Speaks" by John G. Neihardt. When someone or something is bigger and stronger then you it doesn't mean that you have to give them everything. In the time of Wounded Knee and Battle of Little Big Horn the white men were trying to take over the Sioux territory and the Indians were not just going to let them have it. The Indians fought for their land and freedom, though they did not win they still got to stick together as a tribe and live somewhat the way they used to, which is better than being slaves or having the tribes completely destroyed. The Sioux Indians and many more tribes were very brave to stick up for their land and rights, the white Americans had many more numbers and higher kill power weapons and still the little kid on the play ground stood up to the big bad bully.
You don't always have to back down from someone bigger and stronger than you, sometimes you can fight them and still get a little. The Americans had a lot larger numbers then the Sioux Indians and they still fought. Sioux didn't have as powerful weapons as the Americans did and still they fought. The Americans massacred the Indians at Wounded Knee, there was so many women and children and elders and the whites took their lives. The Sioux didn't have anything to defend themselves they were helpless. The Indians tried to always fight they never wanted to back down from anything.
In this book the Sioux Indians are forced to leave their land and buffalo herds for living in a reservation. They did not do this willingly, though if they had not stood up for themselves a little then it could have been a lot worse. When the Indian boy has his dream about the white men coming and taking everything they did not pack it up and run away, they stayed and fought. Instead of fleeing or just giving in which could have resulted in death and a total loss of their Native American ways, they stayed and at least got a little amount of land. The white men in back in those times did not care about anyone other then themselves, so they probably would have just killed all of the Sioux or taken them as slaves, but the Sioux stood up and made the white men realize that they valued their way of life. So the Americans allowed them a little bit of "freedom" even though the Sioux did not see it that way. Today we could have zero Native American tribes, but we do, and it is because of the tribes like the Sioux who didn't back down and in return they got to live a little.
In this book Black Elk, the holy man of the Sioux tribe tells his story of the dream or vision that he had when he was nine years old. He tells how his grandfathers called him and they had a meeting and each granfather turned into something different like a buffalo or something like that, then the last grandfather turns into Black Elk himself so he is looking at himself. Black Elk is supposed to use this dream to guide his people through this time of the white men. He knows how much the Indian people love their way of life and he dose not want to ruin it for them so he sticks up for what he believes is right and does what he thinks should be done which is fight. He took his first scalp at the battle of Little Bighorn at a very young age so he had been fighting for his and his peoples freedom right from the beginning. It is very significant that Black Elk is the main character of this book because he is the boy who had the vision of all that was supposed to happen, he helped out the Sioux in a great way by being their holy man.
When someone bigger and stronger then you is trying to knock you down and take everything you've got, don't give them everything stand up and give them only what you can get away with giving them. We have National Indian reserves today because of the tribes that stood up to America by not letting them take all of their land and by holding on to their beloved ways of life. Black Elk was a very good holy man for the Sioux tribe and he helped see and make it so the Indians could still be Indians today. It's important to remember this time period because it shows how someone little can stand up for themselves and hold on to everything they've got, the Native Americans could have been a lot worse off and they would have been if they had just rolled over and died.