Part
Two...
Then when the many little voices ceased, the great Voice said: "Behold
the circle of the nation's hoop, for it is holy, being endless, and thus
all powers shall be one power in the people without end. Now they shall break
camp and go forth upon the red road, and your Grandfathers shall walk with
them." So the people broke camp and took the good road with the white wing
on their faces, and the order of their going was like this:
First, the black horse riders with the cup of water; and the white horse
riders with the white wing and the sacred herb; and the sorrel riders with
the holy pipe: and the buckskins with the flowering stick. And after these
the little children and the youths and maidens followed in a band.
Second, came the tribe's four chieftains, and their band was all young
men and women.
Third, the nation's four advisers leading men and women neither young
nor old.
Fourth, the old men hobbling with their canes and looking to the earth.
Fifth, old women hobbling with their canes and looking to the earth.
Sixth, myself all alone upon the bay with the bow and arrows that the
First Grandfather gave me. But I was not the last; for when I looked behind
me there were ghosts of people like a trailing fog as far as I could
see--grandfathers of grandfathers and grandmothers of grandmothers without
number. And over these a great Voice--the Voice that was the South--lived,
and I could feel it silent.
And as we went the Voice behind me said: "Behold a good nation walking
in a sacred manner in a good land!"
Then I looked up and saw that there were four ascents ahead, and these
were generations I should know. Now we were on the first ascent, and all
the land was green. And as the long line climbed, all the old men and women
raised their hands, palms forward, to the far sky yonder and began to croon
a song together, and the sky ahead was filled with clouds of baby faces.
When we came to the end of the first ascent we camped in the sacred circle
as before, and in the center stood the holy tree, and still the land about
us was all green.
Then we started on the second ascent, marching as before, and still the
land was green, but it was getting steeper. And as I looked ahead, the people
changed into elks and bison and all four-footed beings and even into fowls,
all walking in a sacred manner on the good red road together. And I myself
was a spotted eagle soaring over them. But just before we stopped to camp
at the end of that ascent, all the marching animals grew restless and afraid
that they were not what they had been, and began sending forth voices of
trouble, calling to their chiefs. And when they camped at the end of that
ascent, I looked down and saw that leaves were falling from the holy tree.
And the Voice said: "Behold your nation, and remember what your Six
Grandfathers gave you, for thenceforth your people walk in difficulties."
Then the people broke camp again, and saw the black road before them
towards where the sun goes down, and black clouds coming yonder; and they
did not want to go but could not stay. And as they walked the third ascent,
all the animals and fowls that were the people ran here and there, for each
one seemed to have his own little vision that he followed and his own rules;
and all over the universe I could hear the winds at war like wild beasts
fighting.
And when we reached the summit of the third ascent and camped, the nation's
hoop was broken like a ring of smoke that spreads and scatters and the holy
tree seemed dying and all its birds were gone. And when I looked ahead I
saw that the fourth ascent would be terrible.
Then when the people were getting ready to begin the fourth ascent, the
Voice spoke like some one weeping, and it said: "Look there upon your nation."
And when I looked down, the people were all changed back to human, and they
were thin, their faces sharp, for they were starving. Their ponies were only
hide and bones. and the holy tree was gone.
And as I looked and wept, I saw that there stood on the north side of
the starving camp a sacred man who was painted red all over his body, and
he held a spear as he walked into the center of the people, and there he
lay down and rolled. And when he got up, it was a fat bison standing there,
and where the bison stood a sacred herb sprang up right where the tree had
been in the center of the nation's hoop. The herb grew and bore four blossoms
on a single stem while I was looking--a blue, a white, a scarlet, and a
yellow--and the bright rays of these flashed to the heavens.
I know now what this meant, that the bison were the gift of a good spirit
and were our strength, but we should lose them, and from the same good spirit
we must find another strength. For the people all seemed better when the
herb had grown and bloomed, and the horses raised their tails and neighed
and pranced around, and I could see a light breeze going from the north among
the people like a ghost; and suddenly the flowering tree was there again
at the center of the nation's hoop where the four-rayed herb had blossomed.
I was still the spotted eagle floating and I could see that I was already
in the fourth ascent and the people were camping yonder at the top of the
third long rise. It was dark and terrible about me, for all the winds of
the world were fighting. It was like rapid gunfire and like whirling smoke,
and like women and children wailing and like horses screaming all over the
world.
I could see my people yonder running about, setting the smokeflap poles
and fastening down their tepees against the wind, for the storm cloud was
coming on them very fast and black, and there were frightened swallows without
number fleeing before the cloud.
Then a song of power came to me and I sang it there in the midst of that
terrible place where I was. It went like this:
A good nation I will make live.
This the nation above has said.
They have given me the power
to make over.
And when I had sung this, a Voice said: "To the four quarters you shall
run for help, and nothing shall be strong before you. Behold him!"
Now I was on my bay horse again, because the horse is of the earth, and
it was there my power would be used. And as I obeyed the Voice and looked,
there was a horse all skin and bones yonder in the west, a faded brownish
black. And a Voice there said: "Take this and make him over; and it was the
four-rayed herb that I was holding in my hand. So I rode above the poor horse
in a circle, and as I did this I could hear the people yonder calling for
spirit power, "A-hey! a-hey! a-hey! a-hey!" Then the poor horse neighed and
rolled and got up, and he was a big, shiny, black stallion with dapples all
over him and his mane about him like a cloud. He was the chief of all the
horses; and when he snorted, it was a flash of lightning and his eyes were
like the sunset star. He dashed to the west and neighed, and the west was
filled with a dust of hoofs, and horses without number, shiny black, came
plunging from the dust. Then he dashed toward the north and neighed, and
to the east and to the south. and the dust clouds answered, giving forth
their plunging horses without number--whites and sorrels and buckskins, fat,
shiny, rejoicing in their fleetness and their strength. It was beautiful,
but it was also terrible.
Then they all stopped short, rearing, and were standing in a great hoop
about their black chief at the center, and were still. And as they stood,
four virgins, more beautiful than women of the earth can be, came through
the circle, dressed in scarlet, one from each of the four quarters, and stood
about the great black stallion in their places; and one held the wooden cup
of water, and one the white wing, and one the pipe, and one the nation's
hoop. All the universe was silent, listening; and then the great black stallion
raised his voice and sang. The song he sang was this:
My horses, prancing they are coming.
My horses, neighing they are coming;
Prancing. they are coming.
All over the universe they come.
They will dance; may you behold them.
(4 times)
A horse nation, they will dance.
May you behold them. (4 times)
His voice was not loud, but it went all over the universe and filled
it. There was nothing that did not hear, and it was more beautiful than anything
can be. It was so beautiful that nothing anywhere could keep from dancing.
The virgins danced, and all the circled horses. The leaves on the trees,
the grasses on the hills and in the valleys, the water in the creeks and
in the rivers and the lakes, the four-legged and the two-legged and the wings
of the air--all danced together to the music of the stallion's song.
And when I looked down upon my people yonder, the cloud passed over,
blessing them with friendly rain, and stood in the east with a flaming rainbow
over it.
Then all the horses went singing back to their places beyond the summit
of the fourth ascent, and all thing sang along with them as they walked.
And a Voice said: "All over the universe they have finished a day of
happiness." And looking down, I saw that the whole wide circle of the day
was beautiful and green, with all fruits growing and all things kind and
happy.
Then a Voice said: "Behold this day, for it is yours to make. Now you
shall stand upon the center of the earth to see, for there they are taking
you." I was still on my bay horse, and once more I felt the riders of the
west, the north, the east, the south, behind me in formation, as before,
and we were going east. I looked ahead and saw the mountains there with rocks
and forests on them, and from the mountains flashed all colors upward to
the heavens. Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and
round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood
there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I
was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and
the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I
saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one
circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty
flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father.
And I saw that it was holy.
Then as I stood there, two men were coming from the east, head first
like arrows flying, and between them rose the daybreak star. They came and
gave a herb to me and said: "With this on earth you shall undertake anything
and do it." It was the daybreak-star herb, the herb of understanding, and
they told me to drop it on the earth. I saw it falling far, and when it struck
the earth it rooted and grew and flowered, four blossoms on one stem, a blue,
a white, a scarlet, and a yellow; and the rays from these streamed upward
to the heavens so that all creatures saw it and in no place was there
darkness.
Then the Voice said: "Your Six Grandfathers--now you shall go back to
them."
I had not noticed how I was dressed until now, and I saw that I was painted
red all over, and my joints were painted black, with white stripes between
the joints. My bay had lightning stripes all over him, and his mane was cloud.
And when I breathed, my breath was lightning.
Now two men were leading me, head first like arrows slanting upward--the
two that brought me from the earth. And as I followed on the bay, they turned
into four flocks of geese that flew in circles, one above each quarter, sending
forth a sacred voice as they flew: Br-r-r-p, br-r-r-p, br-r-r-p, br-r-r-p!
Then I saw ahead the rainbow flaming above the tepee of the Six Grandfathers,
built and roofed with cloud and sewed with thongs of lightning; and underneath
it were all the wings of the air and under them the animals and men. All
these were rejoicing and thunder was like happy laughter.
As I rode in through the rainbow door, there were cheering voices from
all over the universe, and I saw the Six Grandfathers sitting in a row, with
their arms held toward me and their hands, palms out; and behind them in
the cloud were faces thronging, without number, of the people yet to be.
"He has triumphed!" cried the six together, making thunder. And as I
passed before them there, each gave again the gift that he had given me
before--the cup of water and the bow and arrows, the power to make live and
to destroy; the white wing of cleansing and the healing herb; the sacred
pipe; the flowering stick. And each one spoke in turn from west to south,
explaining what he gave as he had done before, and as each one spoke he melted
down into the earth and rose again; and as each did this, I felt nearer to
the earth.
Then the oldest of them all said: "Grandson, all over the universe you
have seen. Now you shall go back with power to the place from whence you
came, and it shall happen yonder that hundreds shall be sacred, hundreds
shall be flames! Behold!"
I looked below and saw my people there, and all were well and happy except
one, and he was lying like the dead--and that one was myself. Then the oldest
Grandfather sang, and his song was like this:
There is someone lying on earth
in a sacred manner.
There is someone--on earth he lies.
In a sacred manner I have made him to walk.
Now the tepee, built and roofed with cloud, began to sway back and forth
as in a wind, and the flaming rainbow door was growing dimmer. I could hear
voices of all kinds crying from outside: "Eagle Wine Stretches is coming
forth! Behold him!"
When I went through the door, the face of the day of earth was appearing
with the daybreak star upon its forehead; and the sun leaped up and looked
upon me, and I was going forth alone.
And as I walked alone, I heard the sun singing as it arose, and it sang
like this:
With visible face I am appearing.
In a sacred manner I appear.
For the greening earth a pleasantness
I make.
The center of the nation's hoop
I have made pleasant.
With visible face, behold me!
The four-leggeds and two-leggeds,
I have made them to walk;
The wings of the air, I have made
them to fly.
With visible face I appear.
My day, I have made it holy.
When the singing stopped, I was feeling lost and very lonely. Then a
Voice above me said: "Look back!" It was a spotted eagle that was hovering
over me and spoke. I looked, and where the flaming rainbow tepee, built and
roofed with cloud, had been, I saw only the tall rock mountain at the center
of the world.
I was all alone on a broad plain now with my feet upon the earth, alone
but for the spotted eagle guarding me. I could see my people's village far
ahead, and I walked very fast, for I was homesick now. Then I saw my own
tepee, and inside I saw my mother and my father, bending over a sick boy
that was myself. And as I entered the tepee, some one was saying: "The boy
is coming to; you had better give him some water."
Then I was sitting up; and I was sad because my mother and my father
didn't seem to know I had been so far away.
from Chapter 4: The Bison Hunt
When I got back to my father and mother and was sitting up there in our
tepee, my face was still all puffed and my legs and arms were badly swollen;
but I felt good all over and wanted to get right up and run around. My parents
would not let me. They told me I had been sick twelve days, lying like dead
all the while, and that Whirlwind Chaser, who was Standing Bear's uncle and
a medicine man, had brought me back to life. I knew it was the Grandfathers
in the Flaming Rainbow Tepee who had cured me; but I felt afraid to say so.
My father gave Whirlwind Chaser the best horse he had for making me well,
and many people came to look at me, and there was much talk about the great
power of Whirlwind Chaser who had made me well all at once when I was almost
the same as dead. Everybody was glad that I was living; but as I lay there
thinking about the wonderful place where I had been and all that I had seen,
I was very sad; for it seemed to me that everybody ought to know about it,
but I was afraid to tell, because I knew that nobody would believe me, little
as I was, for I was only nine years old. Also, as I lay there thinking of
my vision, I could see it all again and feel the meaning with a part of me
like a strange power glowing in my body; but when the part of me that talks
would try to make words for the meaning, it would be like fog and get away
from me.
[From this point much of Black Elk's narrative is taken up with the
description of the suffering that his people endured at the hands of the
"Wasichus" or White Men. By the time Black Elk was sixteen years old his
tribe had been decimated, and what remained of his people would soon be subjected
to living on the terms of the White Man, on what were to become Indian
reservations. All during this time Black Elk avoids speaking of his vision
to anyone, although he often draws strength from it privately. Eventually,
however, his uncertainty about its significance and the continued secrecy
begin to be too much for him.]
From Chapter 13: The Compelling Fear
I was sixteen years old and more, and I had not yet done anything the
Grandfathers wanted me to do, but they had been helping me. I did not know
how to do what they wanted me to do.
A terrible time began for me then, and I could not tell anybody, not
even my father and mother. I was afraid to see a cloud coming up; and whenever
one did, I could hear the thunder beings calling to me: "Behold your
Grandfathers! Make haste!" I could understand the birds when they sang, and
they were always saying: "It is time! It is time!" The crows in the day and
the coyotes at night all called and called to me: "It is time! It is time!
It is time!"
Time to do what? I did not know. Whenever I awoke before daybreak and
went out of the tepee because I was afraid of the stillness when everyone
was sleeping, there were many low voices talking together in the east, and
the daybreak star would sing this song in the silence:
In a sacred manner you shall walk!
Your nation shall behold you!
I could not get along with people now, and I would take my horse and
go far out from camp alone and compare everything on the earth and in the
sky with my vision. Crows would see me and shout to each other as though
they were making fun of me: "Behold him! Behold him!"
When the frosts began I was glad, because there would not be any more
thunder storms for a long while, and I was more and more afraid of them all
the time, for always there would be the voices crying!: "Oo oohey! It is
time! It is time!"
The fear was not so great all the while in the winter, but sometimes
it was bad. Sometimes the crying of coyotes out in the cold made me so afraid
that I would run out of one tepee into another, and I would do this until
I was worn out and fell asleep. I wondered if maybe I was only crazy; and
my father and mother worried a great deal about me. They said: "It is the
strange sickness he had that time when we gave the horse to Whirlwind Chaser
for curing him; and he is not cured." I could not tell them what was the
matter, for then they would only think I was queerer than ever.
I was seventeen years old that winter.
When the grasses were beginning to show their tender faces again, my
father and mother asked an old medicine man by the name of Black Road to
come over and see what he could do for me. Black Road was in a tepee all
alone with me, and he asked me to tell him if I had seen something that troubled
me. By now I was so afraid of being afraid of everything that I told him
about my vision, and when I was through he looked long at me and said:
"Ah-h-h-h!," meaning that he was much surprised. Then he said to me: "Nephew,
I know now what the trouble is! You must do what the bay horse in your vision
wanted you to do. You must do your duty and perform this vision for your
people upon earth. You must have the horse dance first for the people to
see. Then the fear will leave you; but if you do not do this, something very
bad will happen to you."
So we began to get ready for the horse dance.
Chapter 14: The Horse Dance
There was a man by the name of Bear Sings, and he was very old and wise.
So Black Road asked him to help, and he did.
First they sent a crier around in the morning who told the people to
camp in a circle at a certain place a little way up the Tongue from where
the soldiers were. They did this, and in the middle of the circle Bear Sings
and Black Road set up a sacred tepee of bison hide, and on it they painted
pictures from my vision. On the west side they painted a bow and a cup of
water; on the north. white geese and the herb; on the east. the daybreak
star and the pipe; on the south, the flowering stick and the nation's hoop.
Also, they painted horses, elk. and bison. Then over the door of the sacred
tepee, they painted the flaming rainbow. It took them all day to do this,
and it was beautiful.
They told me I must not eat anything until the horse dance was over,
and I had to purify myself in a sweat lodge with sage spread on the floor
of it, and afterwards I had to wipe myself dry with sage.
That evening Black Road and Bear Sings told me to come to the painted
tepee. We were in there alone, and nobody dared come near us to listen. They
asked me if I had heard any songs in my vision, and if I had I must teach
the songs to them. So I sang to them all the songs that I had heard in my
vision, and it took most of the night to teach these songs to them. While
we were in there singing, we could hear low thunder rumbling all over the
village outside, and we knew the thunder beings were glad and had come to
help us.
My father and mother had been helping too by hunting up all that we should
need in the dance. The next morning they had everything ready. There were
four black horses to represent the west; four white horses for the north;
four sorrels for the east; four buckskins for the south. For all of these,
young riders had been chosen. Also there was a bay horse for me to ride,
as in my vision. Four of the most beautiful maidens in the village were ready
to take their part, and there were six very old men for the Grandfathers.
Now it was time to paint and dress for the dance. The four maidens and
the sixteen horses all faced the sacred tepee. Black Road and Bear Sings
then sang a song, and all the others sang along with them, like this:
Father, paint the earth on me.
Father, paint the earth on me.
Father, paint the earth on me.
A nation I will make over.
A two-legged nation I will make holy.
Father. paint the earth on me.
After that the painting was done.
The four black-horse riders were painted all black with blue lightning
stripes down their legs and arms and white hail spots on their hips, and
there were blue streaks of lightning on the horses' legs.
The white-horse riders were painted all white with red streaks of lightning
on their arms and legs, and on the legs of the horses there were streaks
of red lightning, and all the white riders wore plumes of white horse hair
on their heads to look like geese.
The riders of the sorrels of the east were painted all red with straight
black lines of lightning on their limbs and across their breasts, and there
was straight black lightning on the limbs and breasts of the horses too.
The riders of the buckskins of the south were painted all yellow and
streaked with black lightning. The horses were black from the knees down,
and black lightning streaks were on their upper legs and breasts.
My bay horse had bright red streaks of lightning on his limbs, and on
his back a spotted eagle, outstretching was painted where I sat. I was painted
red all over with black lightning on my limbs. I wore a black mask, and across
my forehead a single eagle feather hung.
When the horses and the men were painted they looked beautiful; but they
looked fearful too.
The men were naked, except for a breech-clout; but the four maidens wore
buckskin dresses dyed scarlet, and their faces were scarlet too. Their hair
was braided, and they had wreaths of the sweet and cleansing sage, the sacred
sage, around their heads, and from the wreath of each in front a single eagle
feather hung. They were very beautiful to see.
All this time I was in the sacred tepee with the Six Grandfathers, and
the four sacred virgins were in there too. No one outside was to see me until
the dance began.
Right in the middle of the tepee the Grandfathers made a circle in the
ground with a little trench, and across this they painted two roads--the
red one running north and south, the black one, east and west. On the west
side of this they placed a cup of water with a little bow and arrow laid
across it; and on the east they painted the daybreak star. Then to the maiden
who would represent the north they gave the healing herb to carry and a white
goose wing, the cleansing wind. To her of the east they gave the holy pipe.
To her of the south they gave the flowering stick; and to her who would represent
the west they gave the nation's hoop. Thus the four maidens, good and beautiful,
held in their hands the life of the nation.
All I carried was a red stick to represent the sacred arrow, the power
of the thunder beings of the west.
We were now ready to begin the dance. The Six Grandfathers began to sing,
announcing the riders of the different quarters. First they sang of the black
horse riders, like this:
They will appear--may you behold them!
They will appear--may you behold them!
A horse nation will appear.
A thunder-being nation will appear.
They will appear, behold!
They will appear, behold!
Then the black riders mounted their horses and stood four abreast facing
the place where the sun goes down.
Next the Six Grandfathers sang:
They will appear, may you behold them!
A horse nation will appear, behold!
A geese nation will appear, may you
behold!"
Then the four white horsemen mounted and stood four abreast, facing the
place where the White Giant lives.
Next the Six Grandfathers sang:
Where the sun shines continually,
they will appear!
A buffalo nation, they will appear, behold!
A horse nation, they will appear,
may you behold!
Then the red horsemen mounted and stood four abreast facing the east.
Next the Grandfathers sang:
Where you are always facing,
an elk nation will appear!
May you behold!
A horse nation will appear,
Behold!
The four yellow riders mounted their buckskins and stood four abreast
facing the south.
Now it was time for me to go forth from the sacred tepee, but before
I went forth I sang this song to the drums of the Grandfathers:
He will appear, may you behold him!
An eagle for the eagle nation will appear.
May you behold!
While I was singing thus in the sacred tepee I could hear my horse snorting
and prancing outside. The virgins went forth four abreast and I followed
them, mounting my horse and standing behind them facing the west.
Next the Six Grandfathers came forth and stood abreast behind my bay,
and they began to sing a rapid, lively song to the drums, like this:
They are dancing.
They are coming to behold you.
The horse nation of the west is dancing.
They are coming to behold!
Then they sang the same of the horses of the north and of the east and
of the south. And as they sang of each troop in turn, it wheeled and came
and took its place behind the Grandfathers--the blacks, the whites, the sorrels
and the buckskins, standing four abreast and facing the west. They came prancing
to the lively air of the Grandfathers' song, and they pranced as they stood
in line. And all the while my bay was rearing too and prancing to the music
of the sacred song.
Now when we were all in line, facing the west, I looked up into a dark
cloud that was coming there and the people all became quiet and the horses
quit prancing. And when there was silence but for low thunder yonder, I sent
a voice to the spirits of the cloud, holding forth my right hand, thus, palm
outward, as I cried four times:
Hey-a-a-hey! hey-a-a-hey! hey-a-a-hey! hey-a-a-hey!
Then the Grandfathers behind me sang another sacred song from my vision,
the one that goes like this:
At the center of the earth,
behold a four-legged.
They have said this to me!
And as they sang a strange thing happened. My bay pricked up his ears
and raised his tail and pawed the earth, neighing long and loud to where
the sun goes down. And the four black horses raised their voices, neighing
long and loud, and the whites and the sorrels and the buckskins did the same;
and all the other horses in the village neighed, and even those out grazing
in the valley and on the hill slopes raised their heads and neighed together.
Then suddenly, as I sat there looking at the cloud, I saw my vision yonder
once again--the tepee built of cloud and sewed with lightning the flaming
rainbow door and, underneath, the Six Grandfathers sitting, and all the horses
thronging in their quarters; and also there was I myself upon my bay before
the tepee. I looked about me and could see that what we then were doing was
like a shadow cast upon the earth from yonder vision in the heavens, so bright
it was and clear. I knew the real was yonder and the darkened dream of it
was here.
And as I looked, the Six Grandfathers yonder in the cloud and all the
riders of the horses, and even I myself upon the bay up there, all held their
hands palms outward toward me, and when they did this, I had to pray, and
so I cried:
Grandfathers, you behold me!
Spirits of the World, you behold!
What you have said to me,
I am now performing!
Hear me and help me!
Then the vision went out, and the thunder cloud was coming on with lightning
on its front and many voices in it, and the split-tail swallows swooped above
us in a swarm.
The people of the village ran to fasten down their tepees, while the
black horse riders sang to the drums that rolled like thunder, and this is
what they sang:
I myself made them fear.
Myself, I wore an eagle relic.
I myself made them fear.
Myself, a lightning power I wore.
I myself made them fear,
Made them fear.
The power of the hail I wore,
I myself made them fear,
Made them fear!
Behold me!
And as they sang, the hail and rain were falling yonder just a little
way from us, and we could see it, but the cloud stood there and flashed and
thundered, and only a little sprinkle fell on us. The thunder beings were
glad and had come in a great crowd to see the dance.
Now the four virgins held high the sacred relics that they carried, the
herb and the white wing, the sacred pipe, the flowering stick, the nation's
hoop, offering these to the spirits of the west. Then people who were sick
or sad came to the virgins, making scarlet offerings to them, and after they
had done this, they all felt better and some were cured of sickness and began
to dance for joy.
Now the Grandfathers beat their drums again and the dance began. The
four black horsemen, who had stood behind the Grandfathers, went ahead of
the virgins, riding toward the west side of the circled village, and all
the others followed in their order while the horses pranced and reared.
When the black horse troop had reached the western side, it wheeled around
and fell to the rear behind the buckskins, and the white horse band came
up and led until it reached the north side of the village. Then these fell
back and took the rear behind the blacks, and the sorrels led until they
reached the east. Then these fell back behind the whites, and the buckskins
led until they reached the south. Then they fell back and took the rear,
so that the blacks were leading as before toward the western quarter that
was theirs. Each time the leading horse troop reached its quarter, the Six
Grandfathers sang of the powers of that quarter, and there my bay faced,
pricking up his ears and neighing loud, till all the other horses raised
their voices neighing. When I thus faced the north, I sent a voice again
and said: "Grandfather, behold me! What you gave me I have given to the
people--the power of the healing herb and the cleansing wind. Thus my nation
is made over. Hear and help me!"
And when we reached the east, and after the Grandfathers had sung, I
sent a voice: "Grandfather, behold me! My people, with difficulty they walk.
Give them wisdom and guide them. Hear and help me!"
Between each quarter, as we marched and danced, we all sang together:
A horse nation all over the universe,
Neighing, they come!
Prancing, they come!
May you behold them.
When we had reached the south and the Grandfathers had sung of the power
of growing, my horse faced yonder and neighed again, and all the horses raised
their voices as before. And then I prayed with hand upraised: "Grandfather,
the flowering stick you gave me and the nation's sacred hoop I have given
to the people. Hear me, you who have the power to make grow! Guide the people
that they may be as blossoms on your holy tree, and make it flourish deep
in Mother Earth and make it full of leaves and singing birds."
Then once more the blacks were leading, and as we marched and sang and
danced toward the quarter of the west, the black hail cloud, still standing
yonder watching, filled with voices crying: "Hey-hey! hey-hey!" They were
cheering and rejoicing that my work was being done. And all the people now
were happy and rejoicing, sending voices back, "hey-hey, hey-hey"; and all
the horses neighed, rejoicing with the spirits and the people. Four times
we marched and danced around the circle of the village, singing as we went,
the leaders changing at the quarters, the Six Grandfathers singing to the
power of each quarter, and to each I sent a voice. And at each quarter, as
we stood, somebody who was sick or sad would come with offerings to the
virgins--little scarlet bags of the chacun sha sha, the red willow bark.
And when the offering was made, the giver would feel better and begin to
dance with joy.
And on the second time around, many of the people who had horses joined
the dance with them, milling round and round the Six Grandfathers and the
virgins as we danced ahead. And more and more got on their horses, milling
round us as we went, until there was a whirl of prancing horses all about
us at the end, and all the others danced afoot behind us, and everybody sang
what we were singing.
When we reached the quarter of the west the fourth time, we stopped in
new formation, facing inward toward the sacred tepee in the center of the
village. First stood the virgins, next I stood upon the bay; then came the
Six Grandfathers with eight riders on either side of them--the sorrels and
the buckskins on their right hand; the blacks and whites upon their left.
And when we stood so, the oldest of the Grandfathers, he who was the Spirit
of the Sky, cried out: "Let all the people be ready. He shall send a voice
four times, and at the last voice you shall go forth and coup [hit] the sacred
tepee, and who shall coup it first shall have new power!"
All the riders were eager for the charge, and even the horses seemed
to understand and were rearing and trying to get away. Then I raised my hand
and cried hey-hey four times, and at the fourth the riders all yelled "hoka
hey," and charged upon the tepee. My horse plunged inward along with all
the others, but many were ahead of me and many couped the tepee before I
did.
Then the horses were all rubbed down with sacred sage and led away, and
we began going into the tepee to see what might have happened there while
we were dancing. The Grandfathers had sprinkled fresh soil on the nation's
hoop that they had made in there with the red and black roads across it,
and all around this little circle of the nation's hoop we saw the prints
of tiny pony hoofs as though the spirit horses had been dancing while we
danced.
Now Black Road, who had helped me to perform the dance, took the sacred
pipe from the virgin of the east. After filling it with chacun sha sha, the
bark of the red willow, he lit and offered it to the Powers of the World,
sending a voice thus:
"Grandfathers, you where the sun goes down, you of the sacred wind where
the white giant lives, you where the day comes forth and the morning star,
you where lives the power to grow, you of the sky and you of the earth, wings
of the air and four-leggeds of the world, behold! I, myself, with my horse
nation have done what I was to do on earth. To all of you I offer this pipe
that my people may live!"
Then he smoked and passed the pipe. It went all over the village until
every one had smoked at least a puff.
After the horse dance was over, it seemed that I was above the ground
and did not touch it when I walked. I felt very happy, for I could see that
my people were all happier. Many crowded around me and said that they or
their relatives who had been feeling sick were well again, and these gave
me many gifts. Even the horses seemed to be healthier and happier after the
dance.
The fear that was on me so long was gone, and when thunder clouds appeared
I was always glad to see them, for they came as relatives now to visit me.
Everything seemed good and beautiful now, and kind.
Before this, the medicine men would not talk to me, but now they would
come to me to talk about my vision.
From that time on, I always got up very early to see the rising of the
daybreak star. People knew that I did this, and many would get up to see
it with me, and when it came we said: "Behold the star of understanding!"
From Chapter 18: The Powers of the Bison and the Elk
I think I have told you, but if I have not, you must have understood,
that a man who has a vision is not able to use the power of it until after
he has performed the vision on earth for the people to see. You remember
that my great vision came to me when I was only nine years old, and you have
seen that I was not much good for anything until after I had performed the
horse dance near the mouth of the Tongue River during my eighteenth summer.
And if the great fear had not come upon me, as it did, and forced me to do
my duty, I might have been less good to the people than some man who had
never dreamed at all, even with the memory of so great a vision in me. But
the fear came and if I had not obeyed it, I am sure it would have killed
me in a little while.
It was even then only after the heyoka ceremony in which I performed
my dog vision, that I had the power to practice as a medicine man, curing
sick people; and many I cured with the power that came through me. Of course
it was not I who cured. It was the power from the outer world, and the visions
and ceremonies had only made me like a hole through which the power could
come to the two-leggeds. If I thought that I was doing it myself, the hole
would close up and no power could come through. Then everything I could do
would be foolish. There were other parts of my great vision that I still
had to perform before I could use the power that was in those parts. If you
think about my great vision again, you will remember how the red man turned
into a bison and rolled, and that the people found the good red road after
that. If you will read again what is written, you will see how it was.
To use the power of the bison, I had to perform that part of my vision
for the people to see. It was during the summer of my first cure that this
was done. I carried the pipe to Fox Belly, a wise and good old medicine man,
and asked him to help me do this duty. He was glad to help me, but first
I had to tell him how it was in that part of my vision. I did not tell him
all my vision, only that part. I had never told any one all of it, and even
until now nobody ever heard it all. Even my old friend, Standing Bear, and
my son here have heard it now for the first time when I have told it to you.
Of course there was very much in the vision that even I cannot tell when
I try hard, because very much of it was not for words. But I have told what
can be told.
It has made me very sad to do this at last, and I have lain awake at
night worrying and wondering if I was doing right; for I know I have given
away my power when I have given away my vision, and maybe I cannot live very
long now. But I think I have done right to save the vision in this way, even
though I may die sooner because I did it; for I know the meaning of the vision
is wise and beautiful and good; and you can see that I am only a pitiful
old man after all.
