Rating: 
Summary: Black Elk Still Speaks
Review: To potential readers, worried about the authenticity of this work and its right to speak for Native Americans:The question of how closely the words of this book follow the words of Black Elk has long been debated. It will not be decided here. Turn to the scholarly literature if you truly wish to pursue an answer. I have done that and in my mind (and I do have some education in these realms) am at peace with the book as a genuine expression of turn of the century Lakota spirituality. Neihardt may have written the words, and Ben Black Elk (Black Elk's son) may have done the translating, but Black Elk lived the life, as is corroborated by other sources. I use the work in my introduction to religion classes, to bring another world to life for my students. Is Black Elk's vision theirs? Of course not. Is the book even Black Elk's vision? Perhaps not exactly. But it is a vision of power and every now and then it awakens a vision in students living 100 years after Black Elk. I belive Black Elks speaks and there is some power in his words still.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Easy but Worth It
Review: Unlike many of the other reviewers here I read "Black Elk Speaks" primarily for his visions and secondarily for the historical anthropology. His accounts of various historical battles were gripping, but for me his visions, or rather, his nation's reactions to his visions were the most moving part of his story. The Native American's cultural belief in life and after-life as part of the same reality was beautifully manifested in their everyday lives; their belief that visions, dreams and the spirit world, for humans and animals, are all part and parcel of the physical world. These are some of the themes I found most intriguing. It was heartbreaking to me that a man who gave so much of himself, physically and spiritually, to his nation still believed to the end of his life that he failed because he couldn't save it from destruction.
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