It was more beautiful than anything could be

Chapters 1-6 of Black Elk Speaks were difficult for me to get through.   This is not because the language was complex or the story was painfully brutal.  Rather, this portion of Black Elk's story was achingly beautiful.   The title of this blog comes from Black Elk's comment upon the great vision of his youth.   Indeed, these first six chapters reflect this beauty, as Black Elk explains the important events in his childhood, before the United States had driven his people westward, taken their land, and resigned the Lakota people to reservations.  I couldn't help but read these passages and feel sorry for knowing part of what came later.   This is especially true in considering Black Elk's story in terms of the American Dream, or rather the dreams of an American people : the Lakotas.  Black Elk reflects upon these lost dreams when he recounts, "I know it was the story of a mighty vision given to a man too weak to use it; of a holy tree that should have flourished in a people's heart with flowers and singing birds, and now is withered; and of a people's dream that died in bloody snow"(1).   His early story explains these dreams through the context of his own life: his wishes to become a strong warrior and to be able to hunt and travel with his family while staying in harmony with nature.  After his great vision, his wish to preserve his people and help them to flourish physically and spiritually.   These dreams are not unique to the Lakota people, but rather I think that one can see parallels between Black Elk's personal dreams and those of a more universal group of people.  The wish to be able to provide for family and stay safe, to have something to call your own, and to be connected within a community are not new dreams.  They are a part of the American Dream also, and perhaps quite generally the dream of mankind.   It will be sad to read in detail how these dreams were thwarted, from the perspective of one who had his dream altered and restrained by the American people.