What is the role of storytelling? - how is it portrayed/expressed and why is it important?

Storytelling is at the heart of the oral tradition used by many aboriginal cultures. Visions of spirits and the spirit world are a recurring theme in Black Elk Speaks that are told through stories. Black Elk experiences several visions throughout his life, but the first—at the age of nine—is the most significant. He believes that this vision contains the key to helping save his people from the Wasichus. In that sense, his vision represents his desire to provide a better life and future for his fellow Sioux. Ultimately, Black Elk considers himself a failure for not being able to use his vision to help his people.

Other characters in Black Elk Speaks also experience visions. Black Elk tells of a vision passed down from his father and grandfather, originally seen by a holy man named Drinks Water. Long before white explorers had ever visited the Great Plains, Drinks Water saw a vision of a race that would entrap the Sioux and force them to live in "square gray houses," and that there they would starve. Black Elk later points out that his people were indeed moved into square gray houses, and that the government repeatedly failed to provide adequate amounts of food for the Sioux.