Black Elk Speaks

Jordan Bauer

Black Elk Speaks Report

History of the Black Hills

Dr. David Wolff

September 30, 2005

There are many reasons that I believe the Black Hills were significant to the Lakota. It was there home, it was their primary source of food, they worshipped the animals that lived here, the hills had sacred areas that the Lakota worshipped, it's where their ancestors lived, and just the absolute beauty that the hills gave to them. However, in this paper I am only going to discuss the significance of the hills being the Lakota's home, and the importance of the food and animals.

The Lakota looked at the Black Hills as there home. They were extremely fond of this area because of the amount of food they had access to and the partly because of the beauty of the land.

After Crazy Horse got sick he was told that if he went to the white man's camp he would be ok. However, this was a lie because he taken to camp and put in prison. After this happened the Lakota decided that they had to leave because they were no longer safe living so close to the white people. They decided that they would have to move to the Missouri Rive to live near or with the Wasichus. This really bothered the Lakota because they did not want to be pinned up on some little island out in the middle of the prairie. However, some of the Lakota broke away from the group and went to the land where they used to be happy, Grandmother's Land, or as we know it today as Canada.

When the winter was over they decided that they needed to come back to the Black Hills where their home was. On the way home they came across a couple Native American tribes the Crow, and the Blackfeet. They were both enemies of the Lakota. They did however manage to escape these tribes and were able to make it back to their homeland.

With this evidence their home was very important to them because the whites made the Native Americans move around and leave the land they loved, and would put them in many dangerous situations that they would normally be able to avoid. The Lakota were also hurt by the promise the whites made that they broke. The Lakota were under the impression that the whites were going to stay off their land and leave them alone. However, this obviously did not