From Lincoln Journal, August 4. access at http://journalstar.com/news/local/neihardt-family-returns-bow-and-arrows-to-black-elk-family/article_e6ede9a2-6cd3-5ba5-bb0a-0dc9ef524bdc.html.
Coralie Hughes never understood why her grandfather kept the bow and
arrows once owned by famed Lakota holy man Nicholas Black Elk.
John
G. Neihardt, who wrote “Black Elk Speaks,” had given nearly every other
item he got from Black Elk to the museum and historic center named in
his honor. But he kept the bow and arrows.
After he died in 1973, they went to his daughter, Hilda Neihardt. And when she died in 2004 her daughter, Hughes, got them.
Beneath
a blazing summer sun on Sunday, Hughes and other Neihardt family
members gave the bow and arrows back to Black Elk’s family.
“It just felt like it was the right time,” said Hughes, 62.
The
Neihardt family presented the bow and arrows to Black Elk's
great-great-grandson Myron Pourier during the 50th annual Neihardt Day
at the John G. Neihardt State Historic Site in Bancroft.
Hughes
said her family wanted Pourier to have them to give him strength as he
fights to get Harney Peak in the Black Hills of South Dakota renamed
Black Elk Peak. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names is considering a
proposal to make the change.
Both the Neihardt Center and the
Neihardt family support the name change, which Hughes said would show
respect to the Lakota considering the mountain is now named for a
cavalry officer whose troops killed Native women and children in the
1850s.
“He was part of the destruction of that culture,” she said
of William S. Harney, although she did add that Harney was doing what he
was ordered to do.
At the same time, the mountain holds great
significance to the story of Black Elk and John G. Neihardt, whose
journey to the peak together in 1931 served as the final scene to the
literary classic written by her grandfather.
In that final scene,
Black Elk and Neihardt stood atop Harney Peak as the holy man said a
prayer asking for the fulfillment of his vision, a vision that promised
the revival of his people.
“For it to be named Black Elk Peak is
really important,” Hughes said. “It should be important to everybody
who’s read ‘Black Elk Speaks.’”
