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Basic
Instructions 666 Hopi Affirmation Pages
Black Elk Speaks Chapter 1
The Offering of the Pipe
Black Elk Speaks:
My friend, I am going to tell you the story of my life, as you wish;
and if it were only the story of my life I think I would not tell
it; for what is one man that he should make much of his winters,
even when they bend him like a heavy snow? So many other men have
lived and shall live that story, to be grass upon the hills.
It is the story of all life that is holy and is good to tell,
and of us two-legged sharing in it with the four-legged and the wings of the
air and all green things; for these are children of one mother and their father
is one Spirit.
This, then, is not the tale of a great hunter or of a great
warrior, or of a great traveler, although I have made much meat in my time and
fought for my people both as boy and man, and have gone far and seen strange
lands and men. So also have many others done, and better than I. These things
I shall remember by the way, and often they may seem to be the very tale itself,
as when I was living them in happiness and sorrow. But now that I can see it
all as from a lonely hilltop, 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.
But if the vision was true and mighty, as I know, it is true
and mighty yet; for such things are of the spirit, and it is in the darkness
of their eyes that men get lost.
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So I know that it is a good thing
I am going to do; and because no good thing can be done by any man
alone, I will first make an offering and send a voice to the Spirit
of the World, that it may help me to be true. See, I fill this sacred
pipe with the bark of the red willow;
but before we smoke it, you must see how it is made and what it means.
These four ribbons hanging here on the stem are the four quarters of
the universe. The black one is for the west where the thunder beings
live to send us rain; the white one for the north, whence comes the
great white cleansing wind; the red one for the east, whence springs
the light and where the morning star lives to give men wisdom; the
yellow for the south, whence come the summer and the power to grow.
But these four spirits are only one Spirit after all, and this eagle feather here is for
that One, which is like a father, and also it is for the thoughts of men that
should rise high as eagles do. Is not the sky a father and the earth a mother,
and are not all living things with feet or wings or roots their children? And
this hide upon the mouthpiece here, which should be bison hide,
is for the earth, from whence we came and at whose breast we suck as babies all
our lives, along with all the animals and birds and trees and grasses. And because
it means all this, and more than any man can understand, the pipe is holy.
There is a story about the
way the pipe first came to us. A very long time ago, they say, two scouts
were out looking for bison; and when they came to the top of a high hill and
looked north, they saw something coming a long way off, and when it came closer
they cried out, "It is a woman!," and it was. Then one of the scouts, being foolish,
had bad thoughts and spoke them; but the other said: "This is a sacred woman; throw all bad thoughts away." When
she came still closer, they saw that she wore a fine white buckskin dress, that
her hair was very long and that she
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was young and very beautiful. And she knew their thoughts
and said in a voice that was like singing: "You do not know me, but
if you want to do as you think, you may come." And the foolish one
went; but just as he stood before her, there was a white cloud that
came and covered them. And the beautiful young woman came out of the
cloud, and when it blew away the foolish man was a skeleton covered
with worms.
Then the woman spoke to the one who was not foolish: "You
shall go home and tell your people that I am coming and that a big tepee shall
be built for me in the center of the nation." And the man, who was very much
afraid, went quickly and told the people, who did at once as they were told;
and there around the big tepee they waited for the sacred woman. And after a
while she came, very beautiful and singing, and as she went into the tepee this
is what she sang:
"With visible breath I am walking.
A voice I am sending as I walk.
In a sacred manner I am walking.
With visible tracks I am walking.
In a sacred manner I walk."
And as she sang, there came from her mouth a white cloud that was good
to smell. Then she gave something to the chief, and it was a pipe with
a bison calf carved on one side to mean the earth that bears and feeds
us, and with twelve eagle feathers hanging from the stem to mean the
sky and the twelve moons, and these were tied with a grass that never
breaks. "Behold!" she said. "With this you shall multiply and be a
good nation. Nothing but good shall come from it. Only the hands of
the good shall take care of it and the bad shall not even see it." Then
she sang again and went out of the tepee; and as the people watched
her going,
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suddenly it was a white bison galloping away and snorting,
and soon it was gone.
This they tell, and whether it happened so or not I do not
know; but if you think about it, you can see that it is true.
Now I light the pipe, and after I have offered
it to the powers that are one Power, and sent forth a voice to them, we shall
smoke together. Offering the mouthpiece first of
all to the One above--so--I send a voice:
Hey hey! hey hey! hey hey! hey hey!
Grandfather, Great Spirit, you
have been always, and before you no one has been. There is no other one to pray
to but you. You yourself, everything that you see, everything has been made by
you. The star nations all over the universe you have finished. The four quarters
of the earth you have finished. The day, and in that day, everything you have
finished. Grandfather, Great Spirit, lean close to the earth that you may hear
the voice I send. You towards where the sun goes down, behold me; Thunder Beings,
behold me! You where the White Giant lives in power, behold me! You where the
sun shines continually, whence come the day-break star and the day, behold me!
You where the summer lives, behold me! You in the depths of the heavens, an eagle
of power, behold! And you, Mother Earth, the only Mother, you who have shown
mercy to your children!
Hear me, four quarters of the world--a relative I am! Give
me the strength to walk the soft earth, a relative to all that is! Give me the
eyes to see and the strength to understand, that I may be like you. With your
power only can I face the winds.
Great Spirit, Great Spirit, my Grandfather, all over the earth
the faces of living things are all alike. With tenderness have these come up
out of the ground. Look upon these faces of children
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without number and with children in their arms, that
they may face the winds and walk the good road to the day of quiet.
This is my prayer; hear me! The voice I have sent is weak,
yet with earnestness I have sent it. Hear me!
It is finished. Hetchetu aloh!
Now, my friend, let us smoke together so that there may be
only good between us.
Black Elk Speaks Contents: Out of BI666
Home Dedication Chapter
2 Table
of Contents
Lakota
and Dakota Lives Native
Writers Speak The
Traditional World of the Lakotas
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