Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
2004
Document Type
Article
Abstract
This volume represents a feisty defense of John Neihardt's literary role in crafting the classic presentation of the voice of a Lakota "holy man" in Black Elk Speaks. Holloway explicitly addresses a variety of criticisms leveled against Neihardt that in one way or another accuse him of supplanting Black Elk's voice with one resonating with the biases of his own cultural and religious vision. Holloway not only provides intelligent critiques of these charges, but also takes the reader directly to the texts behind the published text, supplying a great many photocopied pages from Enid Neihardt's typed transcriptions of her stenographic notes recording Black Elk's 1931 narration to Neihardt and from Neihardt's handwritten manuscript of Black Elk Speaks, displaying the literary wrestling with specific words, phrasings, and editorial choices.
Comments
Published in Great Plains Quarterly 24:1 (Winter 2004). Copyright © 2004 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.