Know the Power that is Peace

Black Elk was a holy man of the Lakota Sioux Nation (click on the title of this post to learn more about Black Elk).

Black Elk's Prayer, as translated by John G. Neihardt, is as follows:

Grandfather, Great Mysterious One,

You have been always,

and before you nothing has been.

There is nothing to pray to but you.

The star nations all over the universe are yours,

and yours are the grasses of the earth.

Day in, day out, you are the life of things...

You are older than all need, older than all pain and prayer.

Grandfather, all over the world the faces

of living ones are alike.

In tenderness they have come up

out of the ground.

Look upon your children

with children in their arms,

that they may face the winds and 

walk the Good Road to the Day of Quiet.

Teach me to walk the soft earth.

a relative to all that live.

Sweeten my heart,

and fill me with light.

Give me the strength to understand and

the eyes to see.

Help me, for without you,

I am nothing.

Hetchetu aloh!

I captured this picture of one of Black Elk's phrases on the outside wall of the visitor's center at the Little Bighorn National Battlefield. The first part of the dialogue is in his own language and the second part translated into English.

When I went inside the visitor's center I was immediately overwhelmed by the massive loss of life on both sides at the Battle of Little Bighorn and my emotions overcame me. When one of the admission representatives approached me I could not stop shaking and my heart raced. In that state, I was unable to purchase a ticket. She suggested that I sit on a bench for a few minutes. 

Once I thought I was able to control my emotions, I purchased a ticket and attended a short film on the battle. Sadness again engulfed me and my eyes welled up with tears as I listened to the story of how the US Government and Native American Nations each both foolish and strong-headed, descended toward an unavoidable confrontation.

Outside, the battlefield itself causes one to reflect on the magnitude of suffering. Here are random pictures that I captured. I believe they speak for themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lives taken unnecessarily because of man's inability to sit and speak with one another. Pride, ambition, stubbornness, revenge, all get in the way when what we really need is love, empathy, and understanding. If we could for once just let our minds listen to our hearts.