Marianne Reynolds
One of the most notable literary hikes in the nation will soon celebrate its 10th
anniversary.
The John Neihardt-Black Elk Hike will be held on May 30, beginning at 9 a.m. at the Sylvan LakeTrailhead in South Dakota’s beautiful Black Hills.
The hike, up the 7,244-foot-high Black Elk Peak, commemorates the trip Neihardt made with
Black Elk – also on May 30 decades ago – to the top of the peak where Black Elk had his “great vision,” made famous in the million-seller book, “Black Elk Speaks.”
The hike, led by members of the John Neihardt Foundation, also honors the renaming of the
mountain, from Harney Peak to Black Elk peak, in 2016.
The four- to five-hour hike will be preceded by a short program featuring Myron Pourier, a greatgreat-grandson of Black Elk, and Walt Duda, a long-time leader of the Neihardt Foundation.
John Neihardt is the “poet laureate in perpetuity” of the State of Nebraska. His interviews with Black Elk on the Pine Ridge Reservation led to the 1932 book, “Black Elk Speaks,” which
describes the demise of the free Plains Indian tribes from the Native American perspective.
