Black Elk's Vision: A Lakota Story

by S. D. Nelson

Overview

Black Elk’s Vision is a stunning picture book biography of the celebrated Lakota-Oglala medicine man from award-winning author and illustrator S. D. Nelson.
 
Black Elk (1863–1950) was a Lakota-Oglala medicine man and a cousin of Crazy Horse. This biographical account follows him from childhood through adulthood, recounting the visions he had as a young boy and describing his involvement in the battles of Little Big Horn and Wounded Knee, as well as his journeys to New York City and Europe with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.
 
Award-winning author and member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe S. D. Nelson tells the story of Black Elk through the voice of the medicine man, bringing to life what it was like to be Native American from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century. The Native people found their land overrun by the wasichus (White Man), the buffalo slaughtered for sport, and their people gathered onto reservations.
 
Interspersing archival images with his own artwork, inspired by the ledger-art drawings of the 19th-century Lakota, Nelson conveys how Black Elk clung to his childhood vision, which planted the seeds to help his people—and all people—understand their place in the Circle of Life. Backmatter includes a Lakota description of the Circle of Life, a brief history of the Lakota and a timeline.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781613124390
Publisher:	Abrams Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	05/06/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	56
Sales rank:	930,412
Lexile:	770L (what's this?)
File size:	9 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

S. D. Nelson is a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe of the Dakotas. He is the author of several children’s books for Abrams. School Library Journal called Gift Horse “fluid in both narrative and illustrations,” and Kirkus said Star People was “an exemplary offering.” He lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.

S. D. Nelson is a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in the Dakotas. He is the award-winning author and illustrator of a number of books, including Crazy Horse and Custer, Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, Black Elk’s Vision (winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Storyteller Award and named a Chicago Public Library Best of the Best), and many more. He lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Editorial Reviews

Wonderfully designed to feature Nelson's engaging artwork as well as generously sized archival photos, Black Elk's Vision focuses on his early life, from the age of 4, when "the Wha-shi-choos" (European Americans) were just bogeymen his mother warned the children about, to forced settlement on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
—The Washington Post

Abby McGanney Nolan

Nelson (Coyote Christmas) returns with his highly stylized paintings and trademark primary-colored horses in this tale about Black Elk, a Sioux medicine man at the turn of the 19th century. The author, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, imagines Black Elk's first-person account of Native American life as the Wha-shi-choos (white people) bring trains and forts to the Great Plains and slaughter buffalo by the thousands (“They made lines on our land with their wagon roads and their iron rails”). Anchoring the story are spreads detailing Black Elk's vision when he was nine. In it, “the Powers of the World” teach that each person “must choose to walk with the water of life or the weapon of destruction.” The illustrations' naïve, flat style mutes some of the more graphic events (speared and bloodied fighters and horses are seen at the Battle of the Little Bighorn). Archival photos round out this poignant history lesson, and author notes contextualize the meaning of Black Elk's vision within Native philosophy. A time line of European exploration and western settlement and select Indian War conflicts is included. Ages 8–12. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Gr 3–6—Born in 1863, Black Elk, an Oglala-Lakota medicine man, was warned from an early age to beware the "Wha-shi-choo," or white people, and for good reason. By the time he was 16, his people had been attacked on their lands, fought at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and been confined to grim reservations, their way of life forever changed. Told in a first-person narrative, this handsome biography is adorned with vibrant acrylic paintings that depict the mystical images (spirit voices and visions) that Black Elk first experienced as a child. A fever vision at age nine, in which he met with the six grandfathers, the ancestral beings, proved to be a pivotal experience for him. As a teenager, he ultimately led a Horse Dance ceremony in which he brought a message of hope and instruction to his people. In addition to his respected tribal status, his involvement in many landmark events, from his travels with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show to being injured at the Wounded Knee massacre, makes him a unique historical figure. Aptly chosen photographs (some of which are graphic images of buffalo carcasses and a scene of a mass grave at Wounded Knee) provide accurate historical perspective. An author's note on understanding his Great Vision and background information on the book are included. This is an important contribution to Native biography.—Madeline J. Bryant, Los Angeles Public Library

School Library Journal