During the summer of 1930, while on a research trip for his poem The Song of the Messiah, John G. Neihardt met and became friends with one of the most influential men of his life--Black Elk of the Oglala Sioux. In the following years Neihardt and Black Elk developed a deep friendship wherein Black Elk shared his visions and understanding of the Sioux people with Neihardt. Neihardt recorded his friend's visions, hopes, and fears in his volume Black Elk Speaks, which was first published in 1932.

From a letter written by John G. Neihardt to Black Elk:

November 6, 1930

Dear Friend,

Your letter of November 3 has just reached me, and I am very happy to hear from you! I wondered why I did not hear from you. But I was sure that you would write to me, for I felt when we parted at your home in Manderson that we were friends and that you would not fail me. . . .

Now I have something to tell you that I hope and believe will interest you as much as it does me. After talking with you four and a half hours and thinking over many things you told me, I feel that the whole story of your life ought to be written truthfully by somebody with the right feeling and understanding of your people and of their great history. My idea is to come back to the reservation next spring, probably in April, and have a number of meetings with you and your old friends among the Oglalas who have shared the great history of your race, during the past half century or more.

I would want to tell the story of your life beginning at the beginning and going straight through to Wounded Knee. I would have my daughter, who is a shorthand writer, take down everything you would say, and I would want your firends to talk any time about, and share in, the different things that you would tell about. This would make a complete story of you people since your childhood.

So, you see, this book would be not only the story of your life, but the story of the life of your people. The fact that you have been both a warrior and a medicine man would be of great help in writing the book, because both religion and war are of great importance in history. . . . This book about you would be written in prose, and I would use as much of your language in it as possible. . . .

I would probably be necessary for us to have eight or ten meetings. Does this plan seem a good one to you, and if it seems good to you, will you not be willing to help me make it successful? I . . . feel that so much is known by you Indians that our white people do not know and should know, that I am very eager to write this book if you will help me. . . . [T]ell me if you think you can get three or four of the fine old men that you know to meet with us and talk about old times while you are telling your story to me

I often look at the beautiful ornaments you gave me, and I am very proud of them. And also when I look at them, I think of what they tell me, and that makes them more beautiful still.

With every kind thought for you and your family.

Your friend,

In the summer of 1931, as Neihardt requested in this letter, he and his daughters, Enid and Hilda, spent several weeks on the Pine Ridge Reservation, home of Black Elk, in South Dakota. While in South Dakota Neihardt spend hours talking with Black Elk and other members of the tribe in order to gain an understanding of their culture. Enid, who travelled with her father to act as a stenographer, faithfully recorded the words spoken by Black Elk and several other members of the tribe in these interviews. During their stay Neihardt witnessed many aspects of Native American life that were not often revealed to outsiders. As a memoir of this trip, Enid Neihardt compiled a scrapbook that includes photographs of the Sioux Indians.

The final version of Black Elk Speaks, the results of Neihardt's summers at the reservation, was first published in 1932 by William Morrow & Company. Included in this edition, as well as later editions, are several illustrations drawn by Standing Bear, a member of Black Elk's tribe.