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by Lucy Wilson Ph. D. (Editor), Kyle McGaa Mpaff (Editor), Ba Shirley May Hanson Ma (Editor)
Not unlike Moses at Mt. Sinai, Black Elk had a powerful, predictive communication from the Higher Power. Instead of Moral and Ethical commandments, Black Elk's Vision was a forewarning of the Time that the World is in Now. Its core, the Blue Man of corruption, control and environmental disaster was exposed. Planetary Heating and Drought obviously exists for the observant. The blind deny, but each decade presents looming evidence. Unfortunately, Black Elk's Vision has been detoured, its ultimate message ignored. Black Elk Speaks IV challenges the previous versions of Black Elk Speaks. Eagle Man utilizes experienced Native American Spirituality to set humanity back on the right track of literary exploration. The Author has no quarrel with the original- Black Elk Speaks I]. Ed was a close friend (kola) of the interpreter Ben Black Elk. Black Elk Speaks II] and III] are a conflicting matter that need to be challenged by a traditional Oglala Lakota (Sioux). -Jerry McGowan, author of The Place. Creator warned through Its Earth Powers. An honest White Man, John Neihardt, wrote the revelation truthfully to the world but academic White Men clouded the warning for nearly a century motivated by ego and their false sense of religious superiority. A Sioux warrior, my Dad, with no help from the NDN Academics had to come forward and bring forth the depth of the warning. -Paula K. Tonemah, M.A., author of Spirit Horse-Adventure in Crazy Horse Country. Decades went by before Black Elk spoke of the Vision, but before he began his revelation, he stated to John Neihardt, "I must tell you of my people before I tell you of my life so that you may trust me." In respect for Black Elk, Black Elk Speaks IV will follow his approach, relating Sioux history first. The times and subterfuge of governmental and obsessive religious control, dictated against Sioux people upon their federal reservations, resulted in fatal incarceration for some within the federally built Canton, SD Hiawatha Federal All-Indian Insane Asylum. Confinement was at the discretion of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Indian Agent located at each Sioux reservation. Overzealous Missionaries were the agents' advisers. The real and active threat to one's family placing any Indian in confinement for persisting or championing their spiritual beliefs loomed largely. The resultant federal Ban of Native Spirituality along with their beseeching ceremonies due to lobbying missionaries should be adequate proof of church control on an Indian reservation. The stubborn Sioux went underground and today the old Spiritual Way has miraculously survived and thrives today. Missionaries no longer control Sioux reservations due mainly to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. The major issue within the following text is the Spiritual Warning offered from an obvious Higher Power for not just tribal people but the entire planet. Black Elk observed this predicted force as the Blue Man of environmental destruction, including the impending detriment to our own agriculture and lifestyle. It had obvious capability as it was destroying and polluting all around it, including flora and fauna. Such implications of the Vision have been totally ignored by commentary within subsequent versions of the original Black Elk Speaks and related works and presentations. Black Elk's so termed 'conversion', however, remains too misleading, detouring and diversionary from the disastrous Climate Change which is now visibly apparent worldwide. Hence, Black Elk Speaks IV, from a traditional espousing Teton Lakota (Sioux) had to be written to challenge earlier errant, diluting, related works. No challenge is directed toward John Neihardt. He simply wrote truthfully from his long interview with Black Elk. This is further supported from my personal interviews with Neihardt's daughter Hilda, and my personal relationship with Black Elk's son (Ben Black Elk) - the interpreter of every word of Black Elk Speaks.
