Black Elk Speaks: “That evening before it happened, I went in to Pine
Ridge and heard these things, and while I was there, sol-
diers started for where the Big Foots were. These made
about five hundred soldiers that were there next morning. When
I saw them starting I felt that something terrible was going to
happen. That night I could hardly sleep at all. I walked around
most of the night.
In the morning I went out after my horses, and while I was
out I heard shooting off toward the east, and I knew from
the sound that it must be wagon-guns[cannon] going off. The
sounds went right through my body, and I felt that something
terrible would happen.
When I reached camp with the horses, a man rode up to me
and said: “Hey-hey-hey! The people that are coming are fired
on! I know it!”
I saddled up my buckskin and put on my sacred shirt. It was
one I had made to be worn by no one but myself. It had a spotted
eagle outstretched on the back of it, and the daybreak star was
on the left shoulder, because when facing south that shoulder
is toward the east. Across the breast, from the left shoulder to
the right hip, was the flaming rainbow, and there was another
rainbow around the neck, like a necklace, with a star at the bot-
tom. At each shoulder, elbow,and wrist was an eagle feather;
and over the whole shirt were red streaks of lightning. You will
see that this was from my great vision, and you will know how
it protected me that day.
I painted my face all red, and in my hair I put one eagle
feather for the One Above.
It did not take me long to get ready, for I could still hear the
shooting over there.
I started out alone on the old road that ran across the hills
to Wounded Knee. I had no gun. I carried only the sacred bow
of the west that I had seen in my great vision. I had gone only a
little way when a band of young men came galloping after me.
The first two that came up were Loves War and Iron Wasichu.I
asked what they were going to do, and they said they were just
going to see where the shooting was. Then others were coming
up, and some older men.
We rode fast, and there were about twenty of us now. The
shooting was getting louder. A horseback from over there came
galloping very fast toward us, and he said:”Hey-hey-hey! They
have murdered him!” Then he whipped his horse and rode away
faster toward Pine Ridge.
In a little while we had come to the top of the ridge where,
looking to the east, you can see for the first time the monument
and the burying ground on the little hill where the church is.
That is where the terrible thing started.”
Excerpted from “Black Elk Speaks”, as told through John G. Neihardt, author. Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London.
Islander.