'''Black Elk (Hehaka Sapa)''' soit en français ''Elan Noir'' ( Lakota  (Sioux). Il fut un petit cousin du célèbre chef indien Crazy Horse. Il participa à l’âge très jeune à la bataille de Little Big Horn en 1876 et fut blessé en 1890 lors du massacre de Wounded Knee. En 1887, il voyaga en Angleterre au sein du spectacle ''Wild Wild West'' de Buffalo Bill. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/articles/2005/07/28/buffalo_bill_salford_280705_feature.shtml] dans le cadre de ce qu'il décrivit ultérieurement comme une pénible expérience (au chapitre 20 du recueil de souvenir publié sous le titre ''Black Elk Speaks'' (''Elan Noir raconte [http://blackelkspeaks.unl.edu/blackelk.pdf]''). 

Ses mémoires retrancrits par John Neihardt et à Joseph Epes Brown révélant certains rituels lakotas furent un succès de librairie.

==Bibliographie==
* ''Black Elk and Flaming Rainbow: Personal Memories of the Lakota Holy Man,'' by Hilda Neihardt, University of Nebraska Press, 2006. ISBN 0-8032-8376-8
* ''Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala'', par Michael Steltenkamp
* ''Black Elk: Colonialism and Lakota Catholicism'', par Damian Costello

{{Infobox Person |
  name   = Black Elk|
  image     = BlackElk.jpg |
  caption  = Black Elk with wife and daughter, circa 1890-1910|
  dead           = dead |
  birth_date  = 1863|
  death_date  = 1950|
  }}
'''Black Elk (Hehaka Sapa)''' (c. December 1863 &ndash; Lakota (Sioux). He was Heyoka and a second cousin of Crazy Horse. Black Elk participated, at about the age of twelve, in the Battle of Little Big Horn of 1876, and was injured in the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890.

In 1887, Black Elk traveled to England with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show,[http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/articles/2005/07/28/buffalo_bill_salford_280705_feature.shtml] an unpleasant experience he described in chapter 20 of ''Black Elk Speaks''.[http://blackelkspeaks.unl.edu/blackelk.pdf] 
<!-- Placing the following passages here until sorted out:
He was accidentally left behind and had to make his own way back to his homeland (edit: untrue - read the book Black Elk Speaks and you'll see that he found his original group/show, who afforded him a trip back as well as $90 cash). -->

Black Elk married his first wife, Katie War Bonnett, in 1892. She became a Catholic, and all three of their children were baptized as Catholic. After her death in 1903, he too was baptized, taking the name Nicholas Black Elk and serving as a catechist.  He continued to serve as a spiritual leader among his people, seeing no contradiction in embracing what he found valid in both his tribal traditions concerning Wakan Tanka and those of Christianity. He remarried in 1905 to Anna Brings White, a widow with two daughters. Together they had three more children, remained married until she died in 1941. 

Towards the end of his life, he revealed the story of his life, and a number of sacred Sioux rituals to John Neihardt and Joseph Epes Brown for publication, and his accounts have won wide interest and acclaim.  He also claimed to have had several visions in which he met the spirit that guided the universe.

==Books==
* ''John G. Neihardt), Bison Books, 2004 (originally published in 1932);

* ''The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk's Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt,'' edited by Raymond J. Demallie, University of Nebraska Press; new edition, 1985
* ''The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk's Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux'' (as told to Joseph Epes Brown), MJF Books, 1997
* ''Spiritual Legacy of the American Indian'' (as told to Joseph Epes Brown), World Wisdom, 2007

Books about Black Elk:
*''Black Elk and Flaming Rainbow: Personal Memories of the Lakota Holy Man,'' by Hilda Neihardt, University of Nebraska Press, 2006. ISBN 0-8032-8376-8
*''Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala'', by Michael Steltenkamp
*''Black Elk: Colonialism and Lakota Catholicism'', by Damian Costello
*''Black Elk Reader'', edited by Clyde Holler, Syracuse University Press; 2000

==VHS Video and DVD==
* ''Writings of Black Elk'' (C-SPAN, 2001) ID: 165060.  From the jacket:  The program, telecast from the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, contained portions of an interview with Black Elk’s great-granddaughter, a re-enactment of the battle, and looked at several artifacts from the site.  Length: 2:32.