Charles Eastman, likewise called Ohiyesa, was born in 1858 near Redwood Falls, Minnesota. He was a member of the Santee Sioux people. When Eastman was 4 years old, his mommy passed away throughout the U.S. Dakota War of 1862. Eastman was captured with his daddy but was eventually launched via a prisoner exchange.
In 1870, Eastman was sent to the Santee Indian Reservation in southeastern Nebraska to participate in a goal college. He excelled academically as well as was ultimately sent out to the Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he graduated in 1887 and was the single Native American in his course.
After graduation, Eastman functioned as a physician on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where he treated the sufferers of the Wounded Knee Massacre. Eastman functioned as a physician for several years, but he ultimately expanded disappointed with Western medication and also went back to his ancestral Dakota origins.
Eastman became a prolific writer, with a number of his publications bring into play Sioux traditions and also tales. His works include "The Soul of the Indian," "Indian Boyhood," and also "Wigwam Evenings." Eastman's writing painted a picture of Northern Plains culture before the arrival of white settlers.
Throughout his life time, Eastman became active in the YMCA and contributed in promoting its work amongst Native Americans. He likewise functioned as a U.S. Indian inspector and also was selected by President Grover Cleveland as a delegate to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada in 1890.
Charles Eastman passed away in 1939 in Detroit, Michigan. His legacy includes his numerous books on Santee Sioux life and his advocacy for Native American civil liberties. He brought a special viewpoint to matters of race in America, one that welcomed both his European and also Dakota heritage.
Our collection contains 26 quotes who is written / told by Charles.
"It has been said that the position of woman is the test of civilization, and that of our women was secure. In them was vested our standard of morals and the purity of our blood"
"At the age of about eight years, if he is a boy, she turns him over to his father for more Spartan training"
"Among us all men were created sons of God and stood erect, as conscious of their divinity"
"Indian names were either characteristic nicknames given in a playful spirit, deed names, birth names, or such as have a religious and symbolic meaning"
"There were no temples or shrines among us save those of nature"
"The red man divided mind into two parts, - the spiritual mind and the physical mind"
"The hospitality of the wigwam is only limited by the institution of war"
"Friendship is held to be the severest test of character"
"The religion of the Indian is the last thing about him that the man of another race will ever understand"
"The elements and majestic forces in nature, Lightning, Wind, Water, Fire, and Frost, were regarded with awe as spiritual powers, but always secondary and intermediate in character"
"Our people, though capable of strong and durable feeling, were not demonstrative in their affection at any time, least of all in the presence of guests or strangers"
"More than this, even in those white men who professed religion we found much inconsistency of conduct. They spoke much of spiritual things, while seeking only the material"
"He sees no need for setting apart one day in seven as a holy day, since to him all days are God's"
"The clan is nothing more than a larger family, with its patriarchal chief as the natural head, and the union of several clans by intermarriage and voluntary connection constitutes the tribe"
"Our old age was in some respects the happiest period of life"
"Every act of his life is, in a very real sense, a religious act"
"But to have a friend, and to be true under any and all trials, is the mark of a man!"
"The logical man must either deny all miracles or none, and our American Indian myths and hero stories are perhaps, in themselves, quite as credible as those of the Hebrews of old"
"The Indian was a religious man from his mother's womb"
"The family was not only the social unit, but also the unit of government"
"That is, we believed, the supreme duty of the parent, who only was permitted to claim in some degree the priestly office and function, since it is his creative and protecting power which alone approaches the solemn function of Deity"
"No one who is at all acquainted with the Indian in his home can deny that we are a polite people"
"The native American has been generally despised by his white conquerors for his poverty and simplicity"
"In every religion there is an element of the supernatural, varying with the influence of pure reason over its devotees"
"There was no religious ceremony connected with marriage among us, while on the other hand the relation between man and woman was regarded as in itself mysterious and holy"
"The American Indian was an individualist in religion as in war. He had neither a national army nor an organized church"
