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From BLACK ELK SPEAKS by Jon Neilhardt.

One day we were told that Majesty was coming. I did not know what that was at first, but I learned afterward. It was Grandmother England (Queen Victoria), who owned Grandmother’s Land where we lived awhile after the Wasichus murdered Crazy Horse.

She came to the show in a big shining wagon, and there were soldiers on both sides of her, and many other shining wagons came too. That day other people could not come to the show—just Grandmother England and some people who came with her. Sometimes we had to shoot in the show, but this time we did not shoot at all. We danced and sang, and I was one of the dancers chosen to do this for the Grandmother, because I was young and limber then and could dance many ways. We stood right in front of Grandmother England. She was little but fat and we liked her, because she was good to us. After we had danced, she spoke to us. She said something like this: “I am sixty- seven years old.17 All over the world I have seen all kinds of people; but to-day I have seen the best-looking people I know. If you belonged to me, I would not let them take you around in a show like this.” She said other good things too, and then she said we must come to see her, because she had come to see us. She shook hands with all of us. Her hand was very little and soft. We gave a big cheer for her, and then the shining wagons came in and she got into one of them and they all went away.

In about a half-moon after that we went to see the Grandmother. They put us in some of those shining wagons and took us to a very beautiful place where there was a very big house with sharp, pointed towers on it. There were many seats built high in a circle, and these were just full of Wasichus who were all pounding their heels and yelling: “Jubilee!

Jubilee! Jubilee!” I never heard what this meant. They put us together in a certain place at the bottom of the seats. First there appeared a beautiful black wagon with two black horses, and it went all around the show place. I heard that the Grandmother’s grandson, a little boy, was in that wagon. Next came eight buckskin Next came eight buckskin horses, two by two, pulling a shining black wagon. There was a rider on each right-hand horse and a man walked, holding the front left hand horse. There were soldiers, with bayonets, facing outward all around this wagon. Now all the people in the seats were roaring and yelling “Jubilee!” and “Victoria!” Then we saw Grandmother England again. She was sitting in the back of the wagon and two women sat in the front, facing her. Her dress was all shining and her hat was all shining and her wagon was all shining and so were the horses. She looked like a fire coming. University of Nebraska Press Afterward I heard that there was yellow and white metal all over the horses and the wagon. When she came to where we were, her wagon stopped and she stood up. Then all those people stood up and roared and bowed to her; but she bowed to us. We sent up a great cry and our women made the tremolo. The people in the crowd were so excited that we heard some of them got sick and fell over. Then when it was quiet, we sang a song to the Grandmother. That was a very happy time. We liked Grandmother England, because we could see that she was a fine woman, and she was good to us. Maybe if she had been our Grandmother, it would have been better for our people.

1. Buffalo Bill’s troop arrived at Gravesend on April 16, 1887; the next day they sailed up the Thames to London and then took a train to Earl’s Court, where the show’s head quarters and exhibition arena where still under construction. The show was part of the American Exposition organized as part of the celebration of the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria’s reign. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West opened officially on May 9 and closed on October 31 (Russell, The Lives and Legends of Buffalo Bill, 327-29; Yost, Buffalo Bill, 186-203; Sell and Weybright, Buffalo Bill and the Wild West, 159-76; Gallop, Buffalo Bill’s British Wild West, 54-129).

  1. The private command performance for Queen Victoria at Earl’s Court was held on May 11,1887. See Russell, The Lives and Legends of Buffalo Bill, 330; Sell and Wey-bright, Buffalo Bill and the Wild West, 169-71; Gallop, Buffalo Bill’s British Wild West, 95–102.
  2. On June 21,1887, Buffalo Bill’s performers were assigned seats in one of the grand stands constructed for the spectacular parade of European royalty celebrating Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. See Gallop, Buffalo Bill’s British Wild West, 112

I’m standing with Black Elk. I’m saying she bowed to them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Elk . As a wičháša wakȟáŋ (“medicine man, holy man”) and heyoka of the Oglala Lakota people he is an authority on understanding the importance at all times of TRUTH. As a recognized Crazy-Wisdom-Yogin I have the spiritual credentials he had and has. That bow would not have been one of subservience but one of ultimate respect. Her words spoken to them anchor my statement.

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