Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains (Revised)
In the present volume he offers biographical sketches of 15 great Indian leaders, most of them Sioux and some of them, like Red Cloud and Rain-in-the-Face, friends and acquaintances of the author. In vivid vignettes Eastman captures the character, achievements and historic importance of such leaders as Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Little Crow, Chief Joseph, and Spotted Tail.
Enhanced with 12 portraits, these inspiring pieces will be of great interest to students of American Indian culture and history as well as to anyone who enjoys reading about the larger-than-life figures who dominated Indian life in the second half of the nineteenth century.
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Charles Eastman (1858-1939) was a Santee Dakota physician, lecturer, activist, and writer. Born Hakadah in Minnesota, he was the last of five children of Mary Nancy Eastman, a woman of mixed racial heritage who died shortly after giving birth. Separated from his father and siblings during the Dakota War of 1862, Eastman--who later earned the name Ohíye S'a--was raised by his maternal grandmother in North Dakota and Manitoba. Fifteen years later, he was reunited with his father and oldest brother--who were presumed dead--in South Dakota. At his father's encouragement, Ohíye S'a converted to Christianity and took the name Charles Alexander Eastman, which he would use for the rest of his life. Educated at Dartmouth College, Eastman enrolled in Boston University's medical program after graduating in 1897. He completed his medical degree in 1890, making him one of the first Native Americans to do so. Eastman then moved back to South Dakota, where he worked as a physician for the Bureau of Indian Affairs at the Pine Ridge and Crow Creek Reservations. During a period of economic hardship, he used his wife Elaine Goodale's encouragement to write stories about his childhood, a few of which found publication in St. Nicholas Magazine. In 1902, he published Memories of an Indian Boyhood, a memoir about his life among the Dakota Sioux. In addition to his writing, Eastman maintained a private medical practice, helped establish the Boy Scouts of America, worked as a spokesman for the YMCA and Carlisle Indian Industrial School, and acted as an advisor to several Presidential administrations.
