Response to The Heartsong of Charging Elk

I thought that Welch’s novel, The Heartsong of Charging Elk was rather interesting. The fact that it centers around a story of how a Native American man (Charging Elk) ends up stranded in a foreign land (Marseille) despite what the American government promises him. Before reading this novel, I had not put much thought into Buffalo Bill and his traveling Wild West Show. I did not realize that he and his showmen traveled outside of North American soil. The fact that this show did indeed tour around the world makes me wonder if this story is at least based on some bit of truth. If so, that would make this story even more intriguing, at least to me.

I liked how this story goes back and forth, describing Charging Elk’s earlier life. For instance, how he witnessed his peoples’ loss at the battle of Little Bighorn (a.k.a. the fight at Greasy Grass), which pushed him to live out in the Black Hills. This helped him to become a tougher Indian that made him attractive to Buffalo Bill and ultimately led Bill to select him to perform in his popular Wild West show.

It is very frustrating, however, when the main character gets sick with influenza, falls off his horse, breaks his ribs and is taken to the hospital in Marseille, where there is an administrative mix-up that leads his fellow showmen to leave without him, mainly since they think he is expected to pass away in the hospital. I have been to France, so I have some general idea of what it is like to be surrounded by the language and the culture. Yet, I knew quite a bit of basic française, so I cannot really understand how scary it would be to find yourself stranded in a foreign land where you know nothing of the language or the culture.

When Charging Elk wakes up, he has no idea where he is and no recollection of what had happened to him. Also, he does not know the French language, and barely speaks much English, so he is similar to an infant in a strange, new land. This makes it impossible for him to communicate even simple phrases that one might take for granted. For instance, he cannot ask the nurse for more food or drink, let alone- he cannot tell anyone in Marseille who he is, where he came from, and that he would like nothing more than to go home.

He then wonders aimlessly, trying to find his fellow showmen, but ends up in prison for being a vagrant. When he is released, he is put into the custody of a charitable family of fishmongers, who help him to learn the French language.

The fact that the American consulate does not fulfill its promise to help him return home to his native land in Dakota Territory (the Black Hills) is extremely frustrating to me and makes me feel sorry for all the horrible things that happen to him. For instance, when he awakens to find that he is being raped by a homosexual Frenchmen, he murders the man out of his own self defense and is sentenced to jail for eleven long years for killing a white man, despite the fact that this man raped Charging Elk. He is about twenty-five when he is convicted—luckily avoiding the death penalty—then he is thirty-seven when he is finally pardoned. Not much is depicted during this time in prison.