"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"
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Eastman’s line is a trap laid for the self-appointed “logical” reader: if you’re going to sneer at miracles, you have to be an equal-opportunity skeptic. If you’re going to keep them, you don’t get to curate which peoples are allowed the supernatural. The sentence plays like a philosophical dare, but its real target is cultural hierarchy masquerading as reason.
Written by a Dakota author navigating a late-19th/early-20th-century America addicted to “civilizing” projects, the quote needles a dominant habit: treating Indigenous stories as charming folklore while granting biblical narratives the status of history, moral authority, even national bedrock. Eastman doesn’t ask for indulgence; he asks for consistency. That’s the subtextual power move. He reframes credibility as a political privilege, not a neutral assessment of evidence.
The structure is doing quiet rhetorical work. “Either deny all miracles or none” forces a binary that exposes selective rationalism as bad faith. Then the comparison lands: American Indian hero stories are “quite as credible” as those of “the Hebrews of old.” Eastman isn’t attacking Judaism or Christianity so much as the settler culture that uses “Hebrews” as a safe proxy for scripture while placing Indigenous traditions outside the circle of seriousness. By invoking “of old,” he also reminds readers that distance in time is what makes one tradition feel mythic and another feel sacred - not intrinsic truth.
Eastman’s intent is cultural parity with teeth: if the nation’s moral imagination can accommodate ancient desert miracles, it can’t pretend prairie and woodland miracles are automatically childish.
Written by a Dakota author navigating a late-19th/early-20th-century America addicted to “civilizing” projects, the quote needles a dominant habit: treating Indigenous stories as charming folklore while granting biblical narratives the status of history, moral authority, even national bedrock. Eastman doesn’t ask for indulgence; he asks for consistency. That’s the subtextual power move. He reframes credibility as a political privilege, not a neutral assessment of evidence.
The structure is doing quiet rhetorical work. “Either deny all miracles or none” forces a binary that exposes selective rationalism as bad faith. Then the comparison lands: American Indian hero stories are “quite as credible” as those of “the Hebrews of old.” Eastman isn’t attacking Judaism or Christianity so much as the settler culture that uses “Hebrews” as a safe proxy for scripture while placing Indigenous traditions outside the circle of seriousness. By invoking “of old,” he also reminds readers that distance in time is what makes one tradition feel mythic and another feel sacred - not intrinsic truth.
Eastman’s intent is cultural parity with teeth: if the nation’s moral imagination can accommodate ancient desert miracles, it can’t pretend prairie and woodland miracles are automatically childish.
Quote Details
| Topic | Reason & Logic |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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