Black Elk Speaks: The Power of The Circle

“You have noticed that everything an Indian does in a circle,

and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles,
and everything and everything tries to be round.


In the old days all our power came to us from the sacred hoop

of the nation and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people

flourished. The flowering tree was the living center of the hoop,

and the circle of the four quarters nourished it. The east gave peace

and light, the south gave warmth, the west gave rain and the north

with its cold and mighty wind gave strength and endurance. This
knowledge came to us from the outer world with our religion.


Everything the power of the world does is done in a circle.

The sky is round and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball

and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls.

Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.

The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon

does the same and both are round. Even the seasons form a great
circle in their changing and always come back again to where they were.


The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is

in everything where power moves. Our teepees were round like the

nests of birds, and these were always set in a circle, the nation’s hoop,
a nest of many nests, where the Great Spirit meant for us to hatch our children.”

Black Elk, Holy Man of the Oglala Lakota (1863-1950).