# Black Elk Speaks  ## Metadata - Author: [[John G. Neihardt]] - Full Title: Black Elk Speaks - Category: #native-american ## Highlights - Reflection is the most difficult of all our activities because we are no longer able to establish relative priorities from the multitude of sensations that engulf us. ([Location 169](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00INIXBP2&location=169)) - It is the story of all life that is holy and is good to tell, and of us two-leggeds sharing in it with the four-leggeds and the wings of the air and all green things; for these are children of one mother and their father is one Spirit. ([Location 513](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00INIXBP2&location=513)) - But if the vision was true and mighty, as I know, it is true and mighty yet; for such things are of the spirit, and it is in the darkness of their eyes that men get lost. ([Location 521](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00INIXBP2&location=521)) - These four ribbons hanging here on the stem are the four quarters of the universe. The black one is for the west where the thunder beings2 live to send us rain; the white one for the north, whence comes the great white cleansing wind; the red one for the east, whence springs the light and where the morning star lives to give men wisdom; the yellow for the south, whence come the summer and the power to grow. ([Location 525](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00INIXBP2&location=525)) - But these four spirits are only one Spirit after all, and this eagle feather here is for that One, which is like a father, and also it is for the thoughts of men that should rise high as eagles do. Is not the sky a father and the earth a mother, and are not all living things with feet or wings or roots their children? ([Location 530](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00INIXBP2&location=530)) - Once we were happy in our own country and we were seldom hungry, for then the two-leggeds and the four-leggeds lived together like relatives, and there was plenty for them and for us. But the Wasichus came, and they have made little islands for us and other little islands for the four-leggeds, and always these islands are becoming smaller, for around them surges the gnawing flood of the Wasichu; and it is dirty with lies and greed. ([Location 604](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00INIXBP2&location=604)) - “Behold, a sacred voice is calling you; All over the sky a sacred voice is calling.” ([Location 715](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00INIXBP2&location=715)) - You see, I had been riding with the storm clouds, and had come to earth as rain, and it was drouth that I had killed with the power that the Six Grandfathers gave me. ([Location 873](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00INIXBP2&location=873)) - 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. ([Location 925](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00INIXBP2&location=925)) - 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. ([Location 985](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00INIXBP2&location=985)) - Crazy Horse dreamed and went into the world where there is nothing but the spirits of all things. That is the real world that is behind this one, and everything we see here is something like a shadow from that world. ([Location 1430](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00INIXBP2&location=1430)) - The earth is all that lasts!” ([Location 1818](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00INIXBP2&location=1818)) - How could men get fat by being bad, and starve by being good? I thought and thought about my vision, and it made me very sad; for I wondered if maybe it was only a queer dream after all. ([Location 2017](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00INIXBP2&location=2017)) - It does not matter where his body lies, for it is grass; but where his spirit is, it will be good to be.6 ([Location 2087](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00INIXBP2&location=2087)) - It is a bad way to live, for there can be no power in a square. You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. ([Location 2628](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00INIXBP2&location=2628)) - This was the ceremony, and as I said before, the power of it was in the understanding of its meaning; for nothing can live well except in a manner suited to the way the Power of the World lives and moves to do its work. ([Location 2820](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00INIXBP2&location=2820)) - So we got more lies than cattle, and we could not eat lies. When the agent told the people to quit dancing, their hearts were bad.3 ([Location 3209](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00INIXBP2&location=3209))