Benjamin Black Elk (17 May 1899 – 22 February 1973)
of the
Oglala
The Oglala (pronounced , meaning 'to scatter one's own' in Lakota) are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people who, along with the Dakota, make up the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fires). A majority of the Oglala live on the P ...
Lakota people
The Lakota (; or ) are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people. Also known as the Teton Sioux (from ), they are one of the three prominent subcultures of the Sioux people, with the Eastern Dakota (Santee) and Western D ...
was an actor and educator known as the "fifth face" of
Mount Rushmore
The Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a National Memorial (United States), national memorial centered on a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore (, or Six Grandfathers) in the Black Hills near Keystone, South Dak ...
. The son of
Black Elk
Heȟáka Sápa, commonly known as Black Elk (baptized Nicholas; December 1, 1863 – August 19, 1950), was a ''wičháša wakȟáŋ'' (" medicine man, holy man") and '' heyoka'' of the Oglala Lakota people. He was a second cousin of the war lea ...
and Kate Black Elk, Benjamin played an uncredited role in the 1962 film ''
How the West Was Won''.
Early life
Benjamin was the sixth in line to carry the name "Black Elk".
Born in
Manderson, South Dakota, Benjamin's early life was itinerant, and he was moved to
Ivyland, Pennsylvania and lived with farmer Russell K. Edwards, attending the
Carlisle Indian Industrial School
The United States Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, generally known as Carlisle Indian Industrial School, was the flagship Indian boarding school in the United States from its founding in 1879 to 1918. It was based in the histo ...
from 10 October 1914 to 10 July 1917.
His mother Kate Black Elk had already died in 1903.
His father Black Elk, "practically blind" asked for his son's help in farming and in "care of his stock" in May 1917, but the younger Black Elk was not sent home until after his father died, due to lack of funds. In the 1930s he served as an interpreter for the interviews with his father that became John G. Neihardt's book "Black Elk Speaks".
Baptized Catholic, he has said of himself, "I have led two lives–one as a Christian and one as a believer of the Indian religion."
Life and career
In 1967 he testified before the United States Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, Special Subcommittee on Indian Education, saying "We have good schools all right, but they are getting away from our culture so fast it isn't funny."
He also contributed a whitepaper on the "Educational Needs of Pine Ridge Reservation".
At the time, Senator
George McGovern
George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American politician, diplomat, and historian who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator from South Dakota, and the Democratic Party (United States), Democ ...
of South Dakota found it "notable" that the subcommittee had "chosen to hear from a number of Indian spokesmen" in its first hearings.
Death and legacy
To honor the "unofficial greeter" at Mount Rushmore for 27 years, South Dakota's Tourism Bureau has awarded the Ben Black Elk Award for lifetime achievement in tourism annually since 1980.
He is remembered as the most photographed indigenous person in the U.S.
References
Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Black Elk, Ben
1899 births
1973 deaths
Oglala male actors
20th-century American male actors
Male actors from South Dakota
Native American educators
Educators from South Dakota
20th-century American educators