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Black Elk

 

            Black Elk is successful in using his vision to help his people.
             In the book Black Elk Speaks, Black Elk is successful in using his visions to aid his people in their everyday lives, and to regain their traditional ways of life. He is successful in doing this by taking the initiative to help the boy, who was ill, implementing the dance for his people and towards the ending his people have something to fight for when struggling for survival of their own land. The visions that Black Elk had proved to be relevant to their survival and helps his people believe in something new.
             The first obstacle Black Elk faces is the little boy who was sick and need aid quickly. Black Elk is still in thought about this four-rayed herb that he sees twice- the first time in his great vision and the second time was when he is lamenting on the hill. He sets out to find this herb with a couple of friends. To find this sacred herb he sings a song that he heard in his great vision, "In a sacred manner they are sending voices. (p.152)" After singing this song he looks at a certain spot where crows, chicken hawks and spotted eagles are circling which leads him to think the circling of these birds is a sign of where the herb is. He arrives at the creek and finds the four-rayed herb. Before heading back home he made a prayer to the herb, "Now we shall go forth to the two-leggeds, but only to the weakest ones, and there shall be happy days among the weak. (p.152)"Meaning the sick can only be privileged to experience this herb. The next day Cuts-to-Pieces asks Black Elk to help his sick and possibly dying son with his powers. Black Elk accepts and quickly gets all elements from his vision together; a pipe, a drum, the four rayed-herbs, a wooden cup full of water, and an eagle bone whistle that he's seen before in his vision. He performs a ceremony that involves prayers to his grandfather and the great spirits. For instances he says, "The water in the cup that you have given me, by its power shall the dying live.


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