Nicholas Black Elk

Holy Man and Catechist

Nicholas Black Elk was born in December 1863 along the Little Powder River in present-day Wyoming, a member of the Oglala Lakota people. He grew up in the world of the Great Plains at the twilight of its freedom. As a boy of twelve, he witnessed the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. At age nine, he experienced a profound mystical vision that would shape his understanding of the spiritual world for the rest of his life.

In the 1880s, Black Elk joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and traveled to England and continental Europe. He returned to the Pine Ridge Reservation, where he was present at the devastating Wounded Knee Massacre on December 29, 1890, an event that scarred him deeply. For years he served his people as a healer and spiritual leader in the Lakota tradition.

On December 6, 1904, the Feast of St. Nicholas, Black Elk was baptized into the Catholic Church, taking the name Nicholas. Far from abandoning his people, he became one of the most zealous catechists the American Church has ever known. For over four decades, he traveled tirelessly across the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations, teaching the faith in the Lakota language. He is credited with bringing more than 400 souls into the Catholic Church.

In 1931, poet John Neihardt interviewed him, producing the classic Black Elk Speaks. Later, Joseph Epes Brown recorded his teachings in The Sacred Pipe. These works brought his spiritual wisdom to a worldwide audience. Nicholas Black Elk died on August 19, 1950, on the Pine Ridge Reservation. In 2017, the Diocese of Rapid City opened his cause for canonization, and he was declared a Servant of God.

Timeline