The Redemption of Black Elk


Book Description

As a young child of the Oglala Lakota Sioux, Black Elk had been given a mighty vision which would lead him on a personal journey that lasted his entire life. Although Black Elk's vision was a prophetic message telling the terrible future of his tribe, it also held positive aspects that must be reclaimed. It is through this reclamation that the guiding beacons given to him reveal an ancient pathway woven into the images of the West. By exploring Black Elk's eyewitness account of the crucial events of that time, the author discovered a series of metaphorical footprints that show us the way toward inner strength and a balanced life...125 years later. To help with an interpretation of Black Elk's account, the author invoked the insight of Joseph Campbell, one of the world's foremost authorities on societal ideologies. Through his understanding of symbol and metaphor Campbell was able to examine the metaphorical footprints and provide us with a twenty-first century "spin" that a simple man generations before could only imagine. This book offers a new look at Black Elk's footprints and together with the insight of Joseph Campbell, presents an inward path to the positive forces within each of us, waiting for discovery. About the Author: Linda L. Stampoulos lives in New Jersey, and often travels to the West to research material her books. After completing her Undergraduate and Graduate Degrees at Montclair State University, she went on to Columbia University, to earn her Doctorate in Education. She has taught at both the Undergraduate and Graduate levels in the Schools of Health Foundations and Educational Foundations at Montclair State University. A large portion of her curriculum included the works of Joseph Campbell. She is President of Pompano Associates, Inc. a Women s Business Enterprise, certified by the State of New Jersey Department of Commerce. They can be found at: www.Pompanobooks.com Her last book, "Images of America: Visiting the Grand Canyon, Views of Early Tourism" was listed among the Southwest Books of the Year, Best Reading 2004. In addition, she has previously worked with Arcadia Publishing on several projects, including "Fort Peck Indian Reservation; The Little Bighorn, Tiospaye; "and" The Grand Canyon: Native People and Early Visitors." She is a consultant for Lenape tribal members who are writing a new book exploring the history of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In addition, she has devoted over twenty-five years to work in the field of Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Services.




CliffsNotes on Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks


Book Description

Black Elk Speaks is the story of Nicholas Black Elk, Lakota visionary and healer, and his people at the close of the nineteenth century. Black Elk grew up in a time when white settlers were invading his homeland, slaughtering buffalo herds, and threatening the Lakotas' way of life. Celebrated poet and writer John G. Neidhart tells this story of how the Lakotas' fought back from the triumph at Little Bighorn to the tragedy at Wounded Knee. Black Elk Speaks has been regarded as a collaborative autobiography, a history of a Native American nation, and a spiritual testament for all humankind. This concise supplement to Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks helps students understand the overall structure of the novel, actions and motivations of the characters, and the social and cultural perspectives of the author.




The Black Elk Reader


Book Description

This book includes both new essays and revised versions of classic works by recognized authorities on Black Elk. Clyde Roller's introduction explores his life and texts and illustrates his relevance to today's scholarly discussions. Dale Stover considers Black Elk from a postcolonial perspective, and R. Todd Wise investigates similarities between Black Elk Speaks and the Testimonio (as exemplified by I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala). Anthropologist Raymond A. Bucko provides an annotated bibliography and a sensitive guide to the issues surrounding cultural appropriation, a subject also explored through Frances Kaye's engaging reading of Hawthorne's The Marble Fawn. Classic essays by Julian Rice and George W. Linden are included in the collection as well as Hilda Niehardt's reflections on the 1931 and 1944 interviews with Black Elk. With its unusually broad range of academic disciplines and perspectives, this book shows that Black Elk stands at the intersection of today's scholarly discussions. In addition to scholars of religion, anthropology, multicultural literature, and Native American studies, The Black Elk Reader will appeal to a general audience.




Black Elk


Book Description

"This study of Black Elk, the Oglala Lakota subject of the bestselling Black Elk Speaks, challenges the assumptions of many scholars - both those who claim that Black Elk was a Lakota holy man first and foremost and those who maintain that he abandoned his Lakota tradition after converting to Catholicism." "Arguing from a post-colonial perspective, author Damien Costello deconstructs modern Western assumptions and shows that Black Elk was an active agent, and that his conversion was in continuity with the dynamics of Lakota culture and provided new power to challenge the dominance of colonialism. As a consequence, Black Elk the Lakota holy man and Black Elk the Lakota catechist remembered by his community were not contradictory but one consistent agent fighting for the survival of his people in a colonial world infringing on the Lakota, their lands, and their traditions."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved







Two on a Bridge, the Workbook


Book Description

As a companion tool, this workbook includes further insight and activities to help process the principles outlined in "Two on a Bridge, The Guidebook." These activities are designed to help access the different energy sources available to us and hopefully make them a part of one's life. It is an essential tool that serves as a journal to reflect on thoughts and feelings as the reader and a partner dedicate time to meet and take a journey across the bridge. Over the course of the meetings, there are many opportunities to share goals, examine new ideas, and reflect on individual challenges. As in the Guidebook, the reader will discover the healing energy that can come from the power of two. About the Author Linda L. Stampoulos lives in New Jersey, and often travels to the West to research material her books. After completing her Undergraduate and Graduate Degrees at Montclair State University, she went on to Columbia University, to earn her Doctorate in Education. She has taught at both the Undergraduate and Graduate levels in the Schools of Health Foundations and Educational Foundations at Montclair State University. A large portion of her curriculum included the works of Joseph Campbell. In addition, she has devoted over twenty-five years to work in the field of Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Services. Her last book, "Two on a Bridge, The Guidebook" was recently published. The "Workbook" is a companion tool which offers the reader activities to help process the principles outlined in the Guidebook. Her other works include "The Redemption of Black Elk" which was published in English as well as in German, "Black Elks Vermachtnis." She has also contributed to the Images of America series: "Visiting the Grand Canyon, Views of Early Tourism" which was listed among the Southwest Books of the Year, Best Reading 2004. In addition, she has previously worked on several projects with Native American author Kenny Shields, Jr. to produce: "Fort Peck Indian Reservation; The Little Bighorn, Tiospaye; "and" The Grand Canyon: Native People and Early Visitors." These and other works can be found at Pompanobooks.com




The Sixth Grandfather


Book Description

In a series of interviews an American Plains Indian describes his life and discusses the traditional religious beliefs of the Indians




Mysticism


Book Description

This sweeping study of mysticism by Jess Hollenback considers the writings and experiences of a broad range of traditional religious mystics, including Teresa of Avila, Black Elk, and Gopi Krishna. It also makes use of a new category of sources that more traditional scholars have almost entirely ignored, namely, the autobiographies and writings of contemporary clairvoyants, mediums, and out-of-body travelers. This study contributes to the current debate about the contextuality of mysticism by presenting evidence that not only are the mystic's interpretations of and responses to experiences culturally and historically conditioned, but historical context and cultural environment decisively shape both the perceptual and affective content of the mystic's experience as well. Hollenback also explores the linkage between the mystic's practice of recollection and the onset of other unusual or supernormal manifestations such as photisms, the ability to see auras, telepathic sensitivity, clairvoyance, and out-of-body experiences. He demonstrates that these extraordinary phenomena can actually deepen our understanding of mysticism in unexpected ways. A unique feature of this book is its in-depth analysis of "empowerment," an important phenomenon ignored by most scholars of mysticism. Empowerment is a peculiar enhancement of the imagination, thoughts, and desires that frequently accompanies mystical states of consciousness. Hollenback shows its cross-cultural persistence, its role in constructing the perceptual and existential environments within which the mystic dwells, and its linkage to the fundamental contextuality of mystical experience.




Identity's Strategy


Book Description

This work is an investigation into the persuasive techniques inherent in presentations of identity. strategies involved in the expression of personal identity. Drawing on Kenneth Burke's Dialectic of Constitutions, Anderson analyzes conversion narratives to illustrate how the authors of these autobiographical texts describe dramatic changes in their identities as a means of influencing the beliefs and action of their readers. capacity for self-understanding and self-definition. Communicating this self-interpretation is inherently rhetorical. Expanding on Burkean concepts of human symbol use, Anderson works to parse and critique such inevitable persuasive ends of identity constitution. Anderson examines the strategic presentation of identity in four narratives of religious, sexual, political, and mystical conversions: Catholic social activist Dorothy Day's The Long Loneliness, political commentator David Brock's Blinded by the Right, Deirdre McCloskey's memoir of transgender transformation, Crossing, and the well-known Native American text Black Elk Speaks. Mapping the strategies in each, Anderson points toward a broader understanding of how identity is made - and how it is made persuasive.




Black Elk's Story


Book Description

"Black Elk Speaks, the book of John G. Neihardt's interviews with the Lakota visionary, is one of the most successful popularizations of Native American religious thought. Using the original transcripts of the interviews, Rice points beyond Black Elk Speaks to an increased awareness of difference between Christianity and the Lakota spiritual tradition. To understand these differences Black Elk must be cleanly disentangled from Neihardt. Niehardt was a Christian poet with a typological belief in providential progress, culminating in the enlightenment of all peoples in universal love. Black Elk was more complex, at various times using the language of a Lakota traditionalist, a Catholic catechist, or a synthesis of both. Rice argues that Black Elk retained throughout his life the priorities of his original Lakota identity as healer, visionary, and warrior and held to one constant purpose--the transmission of the Lakota ways to the Lakota people. This indispensable study is the first to discuss thoroughly all the major Black Elk material and the various critical approaches to it. The result is a rich dialogue with Black Elk and Lakota culture that will be of value to literary critics, anthropologists, and other students of Native America culture"--Back cover.