What is in a name? For years I have hiked to the top of the tallest peak east of the Rocky Mountains, now called Black Elk Peak in the heart of the Black Hills of South Dakota. The trail begins at Sylvan Lake and rises a bit more than 1,000 feet in elevation over the beautiful three-mile trail. An estimated 41,000 people make this trek annually. A few hardy locals even have a tradition of summiting the peak every New Year's Day. Between 1935 and 1938 the Civilian Conservation Corps built a rustic stone lookout tower atop the granite peak. The tower served as a perch to scan the incredible horizon for forest fires. A dam, reservoir, and pumphouse were cleverly built to provide water and flush toilets for rangers who lived in the tower's lower level. The structure served that purpose until 1967 when technology made it obsolete. When the tower was built the peak was known as Harney Peak after U.S. Army General William S. Harney. The Lakota referred to the sacred peak as Hinhan Kaga (Making of Owls) because the rock formation resembles owls. In 2016 the peak's name changed to Black Elk Peak, honoring a Lakota holy man. For years I continued to refer to Black Elk Peak as Harney Peak not out of any objection to the name change or admiration for General Harney, but rather habit. Habits are hard to change.
The Black Hills belonged to the Lakota per the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851. When gold was discovered in the Black Hills people invaded seeking fortune. The United States then violated the treaty and took the land lawlessly. Finally in 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Hills were wrongly taken from the Lakota and that compensation was deserved. The tribe refused to agree to the pittance offered as compensation. The peak's 2016 name change honors Nicholas Black Elk who was a second cousin of Crazy Horse. At age nine he had a powerful religious vision while atop Hinhan Kaga Peak. At the tender age of thirteen, he took his first scalp alongside his second cousin, at the Battle of Greasy Grass, also known as the Battle of the Little Bighorn. He later toured with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. He later became famous by speaking with poet John Neihardt who published Black Elk's remembrance of his life events and spirituality in a book titled Black Elk Speaks. Black Elk's connection to the peak is profound. General William S. Harney's connection is slight.
Harney never reached the peak. On a campaign he merely skirted the perimeter of the Hills. Harney Peak was named for him in 1855 following a "battle" which made him famous. It all started in August 1854, when a sick cow struggled to keep up with a Mormon wagon train on the Oregon Trail. The cow wandered into the possession of a Brule Sioux camp. A warrior named High Forehead killed the cow for food. The Mormon who lost the cow filed a complaint at Fort Laramie. The standard response would be for the Indian agent to negotiate some compensation and that would be that. A horse or a mule was offered as compensation, a very reasonable offer for a sick cow. Violating procedure, a brash, inexperienced, incompetent 24-year-old Lieutenant named John Grattan took a small force of soldiers to seek vengeance over the sick cow and entered the Brule camp. Reports indicated that the soldiers had consumed alcohol. They fired on the Indians who had offered the horse or mule in trade and being terrifically outnumbered the soldiers were killed. Public outrage ensued over the deaths of white people. President Franklin Pierce appointed General William S. Harney to "whip the Indians". At the Battle of Blue Water, Harney led his 700 troops into a Sioux village and slaughtered nearly 100 Indians, primarily women and children. The New York Times at the time reported it was a massacre and it wasn't even known if any of the Indians involved had anything to do with the sick cow. A highway historical marker near Ash Hollow, NE commemorates the massacre. Harney's Indian nickname became "Woman Killer". Harney had killed women before. In 1834 he beat an enslaved woman named Hannah to death in a dispute over a set of lost keys to his office. Upon learning this history, I will now and forever refer to the highest peak in the Black Hills as Black Elk Peak.
Take a walk with Birkenstock.
