New Views of the Hoop Black Elk Speaks1 Then I was standing on
the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was
the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more
than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was
seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the
spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together
like one being. And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was
one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as
starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to
shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw
that it was holy. ature, well educated offspring of the Age of
Enlightenment such as Thomas Jefferson and his friends in
Philadelphia whom Lewis sought as mentors, believed in one
overriding purpose in human existence: to study the world about
and beyond them, to learn to name and identify its elements, and
to synthesize their knowledge into a holistic understanding of
the Earth and its celes