The Soul of the Indian

Viac o knihe

Charles Alexander Eastman (1858-1939) was a mixed-blood Sioux, born to a lineage that included Chief Cloudman's daughter and the renowned artist Captain Seth Eastman. His mother passed away shortly after his birth, and during the Sioux Uprising of 1862, he was separated from his father. Fleeing to Canada with his grandmother and uncle, he learned traditional Indian ways until reuniting with his father at age fifteen in South Dakota. Eastman became a prominent figure, earning a Bachelor of Science from Dartmouth in 1887 and a medical degree from Boston University in 1890. His medical career began at the Pine Ridge Agency, where he witnessed the events leading to the Wounded Knee massacre. Throughout his life, he aimed to foster understanding between Native and non-Native Americans. He authored two autobiographical works, Indian Boyhood (1902) and From the Deep Woods to Civilization (1916), along with nine other books, some co-written with his wife, Elaine Goodale Eastman. In The Soul of the Indian, first published in 1911, Eastman sought to depict the religious life of the typical American Indian before European contact.