The Other Book Joe Has been Raving About
If you have been following the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast over the last year, you know that Joe has been on a serious Native American kick. He has read lots of books about Native Americas, and has had several Native Americans on as guests, as well as authors of prominent books about the American Indians.
Recently, he has just finished one that he could not say enough good things about.
On Joe Rogan’s official Instagram account, he recently posted the following:
“I’m reaching the end of “Black Elk, the life of an American Visionary” and it’s one of the most moving books I’ve ever taken in. The beginnings of Black Elk’s life we’re during the final stages of the battles between the Native American tribes and the United States military, and it takes you through Custer’s last stand to the eventual surrender of the Lakota people.”
If this is one of the most moving books to Joe Rogan---given his obvious curiosity and intelligence---then this book must be worth taking a closer look at.
From the books’ back flap:
The epic life story of the Native American holy man who has inspired millions around the world
Black Elk, the Native American holy man, is known to millions of readers around the world from his 1932 testimonial Black Elk Speaks. Adapted by the poet John G. Neihardt from a series of interviews with Black Elk and other elders at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, Black Elk Speaks is one of the most widely read and admired works of American Indian literature. Cryptic and deeply personal, it has been read as a spiritual guide, a philosophical manifesto, and a text to be deconstructed―while the historical Black Elk has faded from view.
In this sweeping book, Joe Jackson provides the definitive biographical account of a figure whose dramatic life converged with some of the most momentous events in the history of the American West. Born in an era of rising violence between the Sioux, white settlers, and U.S. government troops, Black Elk killed his first man at the Little Bighorn, witnessed the death of his second cousin Crazy Horse, and traveled to Europe with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. Upon his return, he was swept up in the traditionalist Ghost Dance movement and shaken by the Massacre at Wounded Knee. But Black Elk was not a warrior, instead accepting the path of a healer and holy man, motivated by a powerful prophetic vision that he struggled to understand. Although Black Elk embraced Catholicism in his later years, he continued to practice the old ways clandestinely and never refrained from seeking meaning in the visions that both haunted and inspired him. In Black Elk, Jackson has crafted a true American epic, restoring to its subject the richness of his times and gorgeously portraying a life of heroism and tragedy, adaptation and endurance, in an era of permanent crisis on the Great Plains.
Top Reader’s Comment:
Like many people, I have been fascinated with the Oglala mystic Black Elk since I was given a copy of John Neihardt’s recording of Black Elk’s story in Black Elk Speaks. Well, some of the story as it turns out. I have since found out that Black Elk became a Roman Catholic catechist and traveled as a missionary to many native American groups for many years. Over the years, there has been some debate over Black Elk’s “true” religious vision. Was he a devotee of his peoples’ traditional religion? Was he a Catholic Christian? Was he both?
Joe Jackson’s book does a highly convincing job of exploring the available evidence and presenting it to the reader. In the process, he tells the fascinating story of Black Elk with much depth and insight.
The most compelling aspect of Black elk’s story is his religiosity. At the age of nine, he received a great vision that dominated the rest of his life. Although parts of the vision were shared to a few elders over the years, it was not until George Neihardt came along that Black Elk felt led to share to vision to him and, though him, to the whole world. Much of the imagery was out of the Oglala tradition, but the vision also specifically mandated seeking a broader religious union with all people, including the waisichus (white people) who such a detrimental effect on his life.
Black Elk himself was involved in two of the archetypal events in white-Native American conflicts. He was twelve at the Battle of Little Big Horn (Custard’s Last Stand) and he shot his first enemy in battle. Unfortunately, this battle (never mind that the U.S. government has taking back land deeded in the last treaty) spoiled the party celebrating the centennial of the Declaration of Independence and lust for revenge was rampant among white people. They got it at the Battle of Wounded Knee, where Black Elk charged U.S. soldiers unarmed and was badly wounded by gunfire. The psychological wounds of this battle haunted Black Elk to the grave.
The impetus of the Great Vision to be a bridge between such enemy peoples probably goes a long way to explaining three major events in Black Elk’s life.
The first such event was his joining the Wild West show of Buffalo Bill (William Cody.) He told Joseph Neihardt that he did it to try and understand white people. He and his family also needed the money. Black Elk became one of the lead dancers and, when the show was taken to England. Black Elk received a personal greeting from Grandmother England (Queen Victoria herself!) Black Elk’s sojourn across the ocean was greatly prolonged when he missed the return boat. Before returning home, he had an interesting relationship with a family in Paris, particularly with a headstrong daughter. It is possible that a few descendants of Black Elk walk about in Europe to this day.
The second major event was Black Elk’s conversion to Catholicism and his becoming a leading catechist. The motives for this move are hard to find, even for Jackson’s great historical detective work. Neihardt was accused of suppressing Black Elk’s Catholicism, but Jackson produces documentation that Neihardt tried to find out about this aspect about Black Elk’s life but Black Elk wasn’t talking about that. Jackson’s best guess is that the reaching out of a sympathetic Jesuit at a hard time for Black Elk may have been a factor. My suspicion is that he saw this conversion as a way of fulfilling the Great Vision’s mandate to be a bridge to all people.
The third event was deciding to tell Joseph Neihardt about his Great Vision so that it would be manifest to all people. Although it took a couple decades for the book to catch on, it has done so and this vision is available to all willing to read about it. Unfortunately, many of the Catholic missionaries construed Black Elk’s confiding in Neihardt a betrayal of the Faith. Jackson shows that Black Elk was a practicing Catholic to the end. I believe he had concluded that the vision needed to be told to all people who would help use it as a bridge between different peoples. He could hardly do his part to build such a bridge without telling of the vision and of traditional Native American rituals that formed one end of the bridge.
Anyone interested in Native American culture and religion and history will find this book of great interest and edification