War Games by Black Elk as told to John G. Neihardt: Analysis

War Games is a part of the story told to John G. Neihardt by Black Elk. Black Elk is a Sioux warrior and a priest. His youth coincided with the last years of territorial freedom for the plains Indians. In Black Elk’s culture, the struggle for existence is highly valued. Red Indians there had to fight for territorial freedom.


Black Elk

Their tradition also was in danger. Children were taught to fight through different war games. They had to learn to fight secretly as well as openly. Luxury was not valued at all. From the very early age, they had to keep their breast open so that it would be sunburnt. Moreover, they practiced endurance. The boys had to bear the pain of burning to prove that they were not coward. They were also encouraged to be obedient. They were supervised by their adviser most of the time.

In this particular part, Black Elk narrated his childhood and plays that are not lesser than the real wars. He stated that the boys of different ages played different war games so that boys from their early boyhood can be ready for anytime attack. He mentioned four types of war games.

In the ‘mud balls’ game, boys of five or six years of age gathered from various tribes and made balls of mud and threw with willow sticks.

Big boys played the game called “Throwing-Them-Off-Their-Horses”. This game was more fierce than the mud balls in which the player would get hurt badly but not killed.

Another war game mentioned in the story was meat stealing game. The player pretended that they were enemies and according to the order of their advisor they need to go to steal meat from rich people. When they returned with meat they celebrate a big feast. Here the narrator remembered his own experience. Once he went for meat stealing. When he was about to steal, he heard a cry. Thinking that the owner saw him and made a cry, he got afraid and fell down the tree. He had to run to save his life. But actually he was not seen, but a dog.

Chapped breast was another war like game the narrator used to play during his childhood. In this dance, a leader is chosen whose breast was mostly burnt down with sun.

And the endurance game was played by putting dry sunflower seeds on their wrists and these had to be burned down there. They had to tolerate the pain and burn. If they cried or threw the seeds, they would be called cowards.

All these games made the boys of Black Elk’s community strong, brave and fierce fighters. Though these games have cruelty and hardship in rules and regulations, the players play the games as normally as other merry making games that other children from other community play. The war games are actually trainings to the tribal boys so that they can protect their own territory and maintain their freedom. It is their culture to play such games which they never can avoid else they will be called coward.

When Black Elk describes the game of little boys, he describes it straightly. He describes the game of the big boys in the same way. As he was still too small to play war that summer, he can remember watching the big boys. Then he expresses his personal attitudes to the white. He hoped to kill all the whites or drive them far away from their country.

Reading on War Games

Summary of War Games

Biography of Black Elk

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