BLACK ELK AND THE SACRED HOOP OF THE NATIONS

by Kurt Griffith / Talking Stone

My name is Kurt Griffith, I am also called Talking Stone. I am the Director of Four Winds Earth Chorus and I was asked today to speak a bit about our mission and our inspiration. We have performed for you today because we belive in what African Unity Day is all about. Economic unity and progress is essential to the prosperity and harmony of Africa and her people. For so many years, the many Nations of Africa and her diverse people have lived with conflict. Some the result of a legacy of colonialism, others from a history of ancient tribal rivalries. The result of this is measured in human suffering, violence, famine, poverty and disease.

In our performance this morning we sang of the People of Earth, the Land, of spirit power and inspiration, of unity. Our name, Four Winds, relates to Native American lore, the Winds of the Four Directions. In Lakota lore, the directions are Black, Red, Yellow and White, the colors of the Four Nations of the People of the Earth. On these spirit winds come the sacred voices and songs of the people. In our music, we hope to create sacred places where all the people may sing, dance and play together in safety, with acceptance and dignity. The Members of the Chorus are all volunteers, from many walks of life and spiritual backgrounds. We choose the path of the bard out of love and faith. What could inspire such a mission?

One answer can be found in the life of a man who lived and died before most of us were born. Black Elk was a man of the Oglala band of the Lakota Nation; a Red man and a Wichasha Wakan, a Holy Man. The story of his life and times is a remarkable journey of faith. While a child living on the Great plains of this nation upon which we stand; his band had never seen a White person, though some of their people had encountered some. As a teenager he was fighting as a warrior in the Indian wars, a participant in the Battle of The Little Big Horn. By the time he was an old man, the great Sioux Nation had been decimated, nearly destroyed and confined to reservations, living “with their faces in the dust.” He had endured the destruction of his world and a holocaust upon his people. But this alone does not distinguish him.

While still a child, he fell ill and lay near death for twelve days. During that time he received a vision from Wakan Tanka of the powers of the four directions, and received gifts of power and healing. He was directed to use them to help his people. With these gifts, he is restore the hoop of his people and cause the Sacred Tree of Life that stands in its center to flower. In his vision he is taken to the center of the world he was instructed by the Six Grandfathers

“And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.

“And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father.

“And I saw that it was holy.”

— Black Elk Speaks

He went on to become a holy man and a healer among his people. In later years he traveled the world and eventually took up Catholicism alongside his native beliefs. His faith allowed him to keep his vision even while his universe was overturned. Near the end of his life he shared his story and vision with the epic poet John G. Neihardt, whom he felt that Great Spirit had delivered to him. The result was the definitive classic Black Elk Speaks. He later instructed Neihardt in Lakota Spiritual ways, so that he would better understand Black Elk’s vision and its implications. His vision was preserved for posterity and is remembered and honored by Native and non-Native alike. Black Elk may have felt that he did not complete the work the Six Grandfathers set him to. But through the telling his story, the sacred voice of the Grandfathers has become a sound greater that the voice of a single man. And the enormity of the task is easily greater than the span of a single life, but the work of generations.

So part of what the Chorus and I are trying to do as part of our work, is carry part of the vision forward. We are working towards the Changleska Wakan Oyate, the Sacred Hoop of the Nations, which has a place for all the people, Black, Red, Yellow, and White. The Creator has made us all as relatives, and we should live and act as such.

I have spoken here of Lakota ways, but I am not here as a representative of Native American Nations, even though many of my ancestors are Red people from this land. I am certainly not here as any kind of Medicine Person, there’s been more than enough abuse of that term. I have only tried to understand and follow what some very good and kind people have shared with me. I do want to say that my ancestors also include Black people and White people as well as Red. Apparently enough of them believed in unity that my family exists. Obviously, it is possible for people to put aside their differences.

We are here because we believe that through our music we help can bring people together. We believe that the spirit powers of the universe, wether you call them spirits, angels, gods, or orishas; have given us the ability to make these sounds of beauty and power because they truly enjoy hearing our voices raised in joy, praise, celebration and prayer. With their help, we can make a difference in this world. Through the music of the Four Nations, we hope to encourage people to grow closer to spirit and to each other.

This is what must happen in Africa. Somehow, the many and diverse people of that great land, the birthplace of the races, must put their histories and differences aside to work for the common good. Not that these things should be forgotten, or national and tribal identities set aside; but that these conflicts and inequities be resolved through respect and cooperation. Much of Africa’s strength and richness rests in the diversity and depth of her people and many cultures. A fact which is not lost on us, as much of Four Winds sound is colored by African rhythms.

Through unity, economic, cultural and political, work towards real progress and prosperity may go forward in earnest. When fear and hunger are conquered, many roots of conflict can be ripped free of the land. And this work goes on all over the world. If we are relatives, if what each one does affects many, acknowledging our interdependence only makes us stronger.

As we enter the new millennia, the people of the Earth will face many challenges. Changing our focus from what divides us to what we share in common will require us to rise above generations of history and cultural momentum. It is the task which this each and every one of us now faces. However, great strides have been made all over the world. In my own short lifetime, the sweep of world events has made this is a far different world from the one I grew up in. The Iron Curtain has fallen. The European Union is poised to succeed centuries of mutually destructive Nationalism. Around the world there is a new interest and awareness of democratic principles. A worldwide information network is hastening an unprecedented explosion in the spread ideas and global awareness. These things give me hope. They give me faith.

My relatives, fellow performers, speakers, honored guests, Mr Secretary. Please enjoy todays events and entertainments, but when you leave remember why we were all here.

Thank you all for listening. Mitaquye Oyasin.

African Unity Day
Dag Hammarksjod Plaza near the United Nations,
July 19, 1998