Pretty Shield
Pretty Shield was a medicine woman of the Crow people who left behind many accounts of the Crow way of life. The Crow transitioned to reservation living during Pretty Shield’s lifetime, and she was witness to the effects of smallpox, the decimation of the buffalo, and the final Sun Dance of her people. She raised nine grandchildren by herself.
BLACK ELK
Black Elk was a holy man of the Oglala Lakota. At the age of twelve, he fought at Little Big Horn. In his early twenties, as a part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, Black Elk went to England, an experience he later described as negative. In 1890, he was injured in the Wounded Knee Massacre. Black Elk heard voices from the age of four and over his lifetime related many visions and lengthy, prophetic dialogues with spiritual beings. He was Heyókȟa - a term denoting a holy genius who lives their life in a contrary way, often doing things “backwards” or in an otherwise unconventional fashion. In 1932, his life story was first published as Black Elk Speaks.
BEAR’S BELLY
Bear’s Belly was a famous warrior of the Great Plains and a member of the Arikara tribe of the Dakotas. Nothing else is known about him.
