Imagine a hoop so large that everything is in it - all two-leggeds like us, four-leggeds, the fishes of the streams, the wings of the air, and all green things that grow. Everything is together in this great hoop - Black Elk.

Black Elk's personal story, spoken in Sioux and translated by his son, was not a chronological, cohesive, organized account of his life and vision. It was, rather, a series of remininscences of incidents and events, and of flashbacks of memory. Often Black Elk's narrative was supplemented by the recollections of his friends. Black Elk gave his vision to Neihardt so that it would "go out". And go out it has. There is no word in Lakota for a poet. Black Elk called Neihardt a "word sender".

The name Black Elk had chosen for my father was Peta-WigamouGke, which Ben translated as Flaming Rainbow. Black Elk explained the reason for that name: "This world is like a garden," he said, "and over this garden his words go like rain. Where they fall, they leave everything a little greener. And after his words have passed, the memory of them shall stand long in the west like a flaming rainbow. Black Elk was quiet for a moment, then he added, "Whenever in the future, I see a rainbow, I will think of my friend, Mr. Neihardt."
Hilda Neihardt, Black Elk & Flaming Rainbow, 1995

Books have been written that cast doubt on the authenticity of Black Elk Speaks. How could this illiterate old man come up with this beautiful vision and the stories? The book, The Sixth Grandfather by Raymond DeMaille compares the original shorthand notes taken by Enid with Neihardt's final version of Black Elk Speaks. The shorthand notes and the original manuscript can be viewed at the University of Missouri library, in Columbia, Missouri. DeMaille comes to the conclusion that although Neihardt embellished the story with his own poetry, the story is Black Elk's own. And perhaps thats what Black Elk intended for Neihardt to do, when he told him to make the vision "go out". Black Elk knew that Neihardt would use his gift of words to spread his vision out across the world, like rain on a garden.

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