Writing Assignment 2 - Black Elk's Early Visions

Benjamin Renwick Writing Assignment 2 October 30th,2022 In Black Elk speaks, Black Elk talks about his visions when he was younger. They first started when he was 5 and was hunting. He saw a kingbird on a branch, and as soon as he was about to shoot it, a voice told him to look up. he saw 2 men coming down from the clouds with arrows and circling, they suddenly turned into geese and flew away. His greater vision happened to him when he was 9. He was on a trip with his tribe when he fell sick and couldn’t move. His family laid him down in a teepee and he saw the same men he saw years ago coming from the clouds. They call him and tell him his grandfathers are waiting for him. Clouds take him to a great vision where he is greeted by a bay horse. The bay horse makes a turn in 4 directions, north, east, south, and west. There are 12 horses in each direction and all matching to the color of that direction. The bay horse tells him that the horses will take him to his grandfather and the sky fills with dancing horses who change into all these different animals. They come up to a teepee with a rainbow door and inside are his grandfathers. The first grandfather gives him a wooden cup of water that contains the sky and tells Black Elk that his spirit is eagle wing stretches. The second grandfather tells him that he will make a nation live and that he has the power of the white giant's wing. The third grandfather gave him a sacred pipe with a spotted eagle on it and told him that he will make well whatever is sick. The fourth grandfather gives him a red stick with birds in its branches and says that it is the living center of a nation. In the stick, black elk can see an intersection of a red and black road. The grandfather tells him that the red road is good, and the black is trouble and war. The fifth grandfather turns into an eagle and tells him he will have a special relationship with birds. The sixth grandfather changes in age until he is a boy who turns out to be Black Elk himself. He tells him his nation will know great trouble. Black elk then sees a circled village and is told it is his. Everyone seems to be dead or dying until he rides through on his horse, and they all revive. A voice tells him that the center of the nation's hoop is what made those people live. The voice then tells him to give them the objects he had just been given and when he plants the stick in the center, it grows into a tree. The voice says they must climb in four ascents, each harder than the last. The people first change into animals and during the second one, the animals turn restless. During the third ascent, they begin to walk down the black road and the nation's hoop is broken. At the last ascent, everyone is starving, and the voice begins to weep. A sacred herb then shows up and blossoms in four colors that represent the directions. He sees fighting and people fleeing. his own horse is reduced to bones but is cured with the herb. 4 virgins come and give him the objects he was given earlier, he then looks down and sees the earth has been restored. Black Elk then sees the hoops of many nations united into one hoop with a tree sheltering them all and saw it was holy. Two men fly in and give him the sacred herb and tell him to go back to his grandfathers. The grandfathers welcome him in triumph and tell him he will go back empowered. As he leaves, he sees his village and goes to it. He sees his parents attending to a sick boy who is himself. He then wakes up and is sad because his parents didn’t seem to know what had just happened. The article I chose is called hoop dancing: literature circles and Native American storytelling. The article talks about how native American culture is taught in schools and the issues with it. They teach about how they live the same way they did before the Europeans came over. The racism and prejudice that comes from that as well, like people calling them dirty and uneducated. The author talks about how they live just like everyone else, they work, drive cars, watch TV, live in houses, and more. the author's next point is how to solve such issues and that is solved through teaching native American material as well as the true interaction between them and Europeans. The author's next point is that we can use native American storytelling practices to improve literacy in schools. Native American storytelling circles allow students to pick what book they read and how much they read of it each time. The students will also write in a journal about it and even answer some open questions to help expand their understanding. After that is done, the students can come together in groups and share their views on the text and questions. Lastly, they can share stories that remind them of such text/questions. this gives them an understanding of their own family and experiences as well as others. My grandfather passed away 7 years ago, but there are times I feel like he is still with me to help me in life. One time that stands out to me is my senior year of high school before the soccer season was starting. For the past 3 years, I started to fall out of love with the sport due to injuries. Growing up my grandparents went to every game they could, even when my grandpa started to decline due to illness and playing didn’t feel the same since he passed. Well before the season started my grandma was talking about how excited she was to watch me play, and how proud my grandpa would be. I was still debating playing but I found a photo of me and grandpa after a game and one of his old jackets while going through stuff. That photo brought me joy and that jacket called to me. I wore that jacket before every game, and we had a great season. I believe that jacket helped me perform at my best and bring that love back to the game of soccer. Bruce, Heather E. “Hoop Dancing: Literature Circles and Native American Storytelling.” The English Journal, vol. 93, no. 1, 2003, pp. 54–59. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3650571. Accessed 30 Oct. 2022.