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Why Does The Sioux Suffer During The Third And Fourth Ascents

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While Black Elk travels to and from Europe, there are two significant animals that die that symbolize the way the Sioux suffer during the third and fourth ascents. The two main animals that represented the ascents were the Bison and the Elk. In chapter eighteen it talks about how the Elk was in the east which is where power comes from. “ You will remember how the pipe and the bison were in the east and the elk in the south” (166) Throughout the story of the Sioux tribe we learn that the sacred hoop is a one of many places in which the tribe’s power comes from. So while the wasichus are killing the elk, they are also destroying the tribe’s source of power as well as breaking the nation’s hoop. Through the duration of the fourth ascent, the nation’s hoop is broken and the birthplace of the tribe’s …show more content…

The death of the bison symbolize the people’s suffering during this ascent. Seeing as how bison was a major food source for the tribe, watching the Wasichus throw the bison overboard, was like watching a person throw away a feast to the Sioux. “I felt like crying, because I thought right there they were throwing part of the power of my people away” (176) The bison was not only a food source for the tribe, but power as well. This was hard for the tribe. To lose their power, their homes, and their land. They were suffering greatly from everything that the Wasichus were doing to them. “I know now what this meant, that the bison were a gift of a good spirit and were our strength, but we should lose them” (30). Even during the great vision, Black Elk saw that he would not only lose the bison, but the strength of his tribe that went along with the bison. Through the duration of Black Elk’s trip to and from Europe, diseased, Bison and Elk were thrown overboard which also symbolized the tribe’s pain and suffering throughout the third and fourth ascents seen in the great

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