Black Elk and Flaming Rainbow: Personal Memories of the Lakota Holy Man and John Neihardt

"Very moving and inspirational. An assurance that the old-time Sioux were truly spiritual and indeed a dignified and honorable people. Hilda Neihardt takes us back to those final remnants of a life once lived graciously upon the Great Plains."-Ed McGaa, author of Mother Earth Spirituality: Native American Paths to Healing Ourselves & Our World. In 1931 John G. Neihardt traveled to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to interview Lakota elders who had witnessed the Ghost Dance and the Wounded Knee Massacre. He found more than he expected. He found Black Elk. Their two weeks of intense talks became Black Elk Speaks, one of the most important biographies of an American Indian ever published. Accompanying John Neihardt to help him observe and to take notes were his two daughters, Enid and Hilda. When he returned in 1944 for further interviews, Hilda again accompanied him. For the first time Hilda Neihardt presents her memories of those interviews. She celebrates the days and nights of storytelling, camping, feasting, and horseback riding with the fresh eyes of the bright fourteen-year old. The volume includes never-before-published photographs and answers many questions about the collaboration between the Lakota holy man and her father, called Peta Wigamou-Gke, or Flaming Rainbow. A witness to the interviews, Hilda Neihardt supplies unique and irreplaceable testimony as well as a transcript of a taped conversation between her father and Ben Black Elk, Black Elk's son who served as interpreter. At a time when interest in Black Elk is at a new high, she also corrects recent accounts by others, not only with her own recollections, but with reference to the historical record. When Black Elk spoke and John Neihardt listened they began a dialogue that is far from finished. Black Elk and Flaming Rainbow carries that dialogue to a new generation. Hilda Neihardt lives on the west bank of the Missouri River near Tekamah, Nebraska. For years a private attorney, she now devotes much of her time to presentations in schools and to service organizations.