The Twilight of the Sioux is essential reading for understanding the unforgettable world and majestic sweep of events and people in Black Elk Speaks. The magnificence and tragedy of the Old West is here, as told by the brilliant epic poet John G. Neihardt: the courage of settlers in the American West; the valiant resistance by the Native peoples who called it home. In these pages, the legendary warriors Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, and Sitting Bull ride forth again; the ghost dance is performed once more; the 7th cavalry is annihilated at the Little Bighorn only to rise again and participate in a horrific massacre at Wounded Knee. This is the second volume in Neihardt's acclaimed A Cycle of the West, containing The Song of the Indian Wars and The Song of the Messiah. While interviewing those who took part in and remembered this long-ago time, John G. Neihardt met the Lakota healer, Nicholas Black Elk.