Black Elk (Heḥáka Sápa)

1863–1950 · Lakota Sioux · 19th-20th Century

Known for: The Oglala holy man whose great vision at age 9 became one of the most important spiritual autobiographies in American history

Black Elk was an Oglala Lakota holy man who witnessed the Battle of Little Bighorn as a child, performed in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show in Europe, and later became a Catholic catechist. His account of his Great Vision and Lakota spirituality, recorded by John Neihardt as Black Elk Speaks, is one of the most influential Native American texts.

What Black Elk (Heḥáka Sápa) would be watching

The “if they lived today” Q&A on this page gives Black Elk (Heḥáka Sápa) Dances with Wolves (1990) as a favourite film. Their reason: “Better than most. Still not right.” Rankquant scores it above 89% of films, drawn from 495 IMDb reviewers individually re-centred rather than averaged raw. The full film & TV rankings are built the same way.

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