Heȟáka Sápa, commonly known as Black Elk, was a wičháša wakȟáŋ and heyoka of the Oglala Lakota people. He was a second cousin of the war leader Crazy Horse and fought with him in the Battle of Little Bighorn. He survived the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. He toured and performed in Europe as part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West.
Nicholas Black Elk, daughter Lucy Black Elk and wife Anna Brings White, photographed ca 1910.
Black Elk (L) and Elk of the Oglala Lakota photographed in London in their grass dance regalia while touring with Buffalo Bill's Wild West, 1887
The heyoka is a kind of sacred clown in the culture of the Sioux of the Great Plains of North America. The heyoka is a contrarian, jester, and satirist, who speaks, moves and reacts in an opposite fashion to the people around them. Only those having visions of the thunder beings of the west, the Wakíŋyaŋ, and who are recognized as such by the community, can take on the ceremonial role of the heyoka.
Ledger artwork by Lakota artist Black Hawk representing a dream of a thunder being. c. 1880