The life of Oglala Sioux holy man Black Elk (1863-1950) spanned the tragic decades of the battle with Custer at the Little Big Horn, the ghost dance, and the massacre at Wounded Knee. In 1930, Nebraska poet John G. Neihardt went to the Pine Ridge Reservation to try to find some original sources to interview about the great spiritual traditions of the Sioux. He found Black Elk and proceeded to interview him over the course of the next two years. The words of The Sacred Hoop are taken from Neihardt's classic volume, Black Elk Speaks.