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In Memoriam of Vine Deloria, Jr. - 1933 - 2005
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Posted: January 10, 2005 by: Indian Country Today

Many writers and intellectuals have contributed to the understanding and the defense of Native peoples; Vine Deloria Jr. captured the mind of a generation.

Over the course of four decades, Vine Deloria Jr. provided enormous perception, guidance, strategy and sheer analytical heft to the struggle for respect and justice for American Indians. Thus Deloria's unique creative genius stands out above the best of the best. This is not stated lightly; many individuals have made wonderful contributions in the same direction over the same period, some even sacrificing their lives - valiantly and selflessly in defense of their peoples. But in every generation, too, to paraphrase the late Muskogee medicine man, Phillip Deere, there is one that hits the click-stone just right, and sparks the fire.

For that reason, primarily - but leading many other reasons - for sparking the intellectual fire of political, legal, historical and spiritual illumination, for lighting the path to the mountain-head of knowledge and pointing out the way ahead, Indian Country Today's editorial committee is proud to bestow the 2005 American Indian Visionary Award upon Dr. Vine Deloria Jr.

There is no one in Indian country quite like Vine Deloria Jr. Already a mature political mind at the genesis of the tumultuous American Indian activism that erupts in the late 1960s, the young lawyer-historian-theologian penned the early books that galvanized political thinking and discussion among the new wave of activism in Indian country. Deloria served as executive director of the National Congress of American Indians from 1964 to 1967. He was a young contemporary of the generation that confronted termination, active and brilliant. So that when the rallying cry of sovereignty and self-determination sounded loud and clear in Indian country, Deloria was readiest of all to make sense of it, to fortify it, to lead the discourse.

Deloria's early work of deciphering the Indian history within North America from a Native perspective proved invaluable in tying together and coalescing many disparate but kindred Native groups engaged in tribal and other contentions. It was the work that placed everyone in the feeling of belonging within a shared intellectual tradition. Deloria's work, initially in the vein of an Indian manifesto, would continue to deepen over the decades, to become canon for the next two generations of Native scholars. Consistently and bravely going ahead of other scholarship to identify crucial issues in Native history, religion, culture and science, Deloria's oeuvre will engage the hearts and minds of Native and non-Native scholars for generations to come.

Those among our staff and columnists who were at the Indian movement newspaper, Akwesasne Notes, during the early 1970s, heyday of the Indian activist movement, remember that, ''Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto'', was always the hottest selling book of the month at The Notes Bookstore. From the Northeast to Minneapolis to Denver and Albuquerque to Los Angeles and San Francisco, from the hardscrabble safe-houses of the American Indian Movement to the polished floors of new academic programs, more likely than not, you would run into a dog-eared copy of ''Custer Died for Your Sins'' (1969), often in the company of its sequel, ''We talk, You Listen'' (1970), another early classic in which Deloria managed to capture the mood and personalities of the time far better than any other contemporary writer - Indian or not. Many an Indian activist's education began with either or both of those books and as Wilma Mankiller has written of Vine Deloria Jr., ''No writer has more clearly articulated the unspoken emotions, dreams and lifeways of contemporary Native people.''

In those two early books, the Standing Rock Sioux tribal member hit a nerve that has continued to pulse and mature with each successive wave of his writings. Over the years the enthusiastic response has grown into an intense following that appreciates and respects and enjoys the work. The enjoyment part is central. Deloria is not only readable and informative. He can be very funny in framing the various phenomena coming at the Indian communities though the jaded eye of the millennial observer. Perhaps the most incisive piece of Deloria is his ironic humor - caustic, not quite brutal - with which he peppers his subjects as he prepares to cook them crisply. Framing the issue of anthropology from a Native grassroots perspective, he gave us the memorable phrases: ''Into each life, it is said, some rain must fall ... But Indians have been cursed above all other people in history. Indians have anthropologists.''

Deloria similarly framed the issue of missionaries; he challenged anti-Indian educators and policies; he diligently surveyed the treaty history, the history of loss of Indian lands and assets, consistently finding and upholding bases of Indian jurisdictional rights and the illogic of the rationale for dispossessing the American Indian peoples of North America.

Joining the fray over the Bering Strait theory, in characteristic fashion he debunks the frail trail of evidence still cited as irrefutable by most of science that America was uniformly peopled by migrations crossing over from Eurasia over the frozen Bering Sea. Right or wrong in these cases, ultimately, Deloria rightfully questions the canon principles of the Western thinking on Indians; the easy assertions about culture; the ''time when conferences on Indians had no Indians, when buffs and hobbyists made major policy decisions regarding the fate and future of Indians, and when a handful of church representatives conferred quietly with the Secretary of the Interior about federal programs.''

Professor of History of Law at the University of Arizona, he directed the graduate program in American Indian Policy Studies. Now retired from the University of Colorado, he has served on various boards including the National Museum of the American Indian and the Intertribal Bison Council and continues to write and to lecture.

Among Deloria's principal books:

''Custer Died for Your Sins'' (1969)

''We Talk, You Listen: New Tribes, New Turf'' (1970)

''God Is Red: A Native View of Religion'' (1973)

''Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties: An Indian Declaration of Independence'' (1974)

''Indians of the Pacific Northwest: From the Coming of the White Man to the Present Day'' (1977)

''American Indians, American Justice'' (1983), co-written by Clifford Lytle

''The Nations Within: The Past and Future of American Indian Sovereignty'' (1984), co-written by Clifford Lytle

''Red Earth, White Lies: Native Americans and the Myth of Scientific Fact'' (1995)

''Evolution, Creationism and Other Modern Myths'' (2002).

Look up Vine Deloria Jr. on Google and you will have some 22,400 citations to choose from. Look him up among the Amazon.com authors and you can peruse 831 listings by this highly-productive author. Serious new anthologies on Indian topics nearly always have a selection of Deloria's work and in many cases, are likely to carry his introduction, or a preface or some other tone-setting contribution to the volume. Over the course of four decades Deloria has received many awards and honors. To mention just some recent ones: The 1996 Wordcraft Circle, which is an award from Native writers; the 2002 National Book Festival Honors; the 2002 Wallace Stegner Award from the Center of the American West (Boulder), the 2003 American Indian Festival of Words Author Award; among others. Deloria permeates Indian country social science research and well he should. The scope of his contribution is indeed unique - trend setting, broad ranging and prolific.

In a recent book, ''Singing for a Spirit'', Deloria traces his own commitment and predilections within the trajectory of his own family through the generations, since the open Plains days of his Sioux ancestors through to his own generation. This fascinating and very personal tale connects the dots in his own family's history of ''religious leadership'' ... ''so it could be predicted that I would tend to see the underlying religious dimension of political action.''

The noted author fields another needed challenge for today's major political discussion in his preface to the relatively recent, ''Spirit and Reason'', (Fulcrum, 1999): ''Religion,'' he writes, ''... must, I think, have an intimate connection with the world in which we live, and any religion that promotes other places - heaven and so on - in favor of what we have in the physical world is a delusion, a mere control device to allow us to be manipulated.''

There is vision, mission and deliverance in Deloria's work, and high talent coupled to a vigorous work ethic - the kind of directed effort over a lifetime that is fueled only by a true love of the people. For 40 years, always where he was needed, Deloria has been a stalwart of the four directions, one whose dedication and commitment has been as solid as a standing stone and we hope as long lasting. May he last and may his contribution continue to grow and may his legacy continue to braid itself into the trunk of Native philosophy, spiritual and political life. Deloria's is a most useful gift - well received and appreciated. For his wonderful gift, so generously given, we honor the life and work of Vine Deloria Jr.

Vine Deloria, Jr.
Leading Standing Rock Sioux scholar, writer and activist
Born: March 26, 1933
Birthplace: Martin, S.D

Deloria, of Standing Rock Sioux origin, was born in South Dakota near the Pine Ridge Oglala Sioux Indian Reservation. He was educated at reservation schools, graduated from Iowa State University in 1958, received a master's degree in theology in 1963 from the Lutheran School of Theology in Illinois, and a law degree at the University of Colorado in 1970.

He began his career as an eloquent, and often highly provocative spokesperson for Indian identity and social change while working at the National Conference of American Indians in Washington from 1964 to 1967. In 1969 he published the first of more than 20 books, Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto. His most famous book, Custer shattered Indian stereotypes and challenged white audiences to take a hard look at brutal history of American expansionism across the west. His prose and ideas were charged with biting wit (“When asked by an anthropologist what the Indians called America before the white man came, an Indian said simply, ‘Ours.’ ”) and incendiary statements meant to shock audiences out of their complacency (Custer, he said, was “the Adolf Eichmann of the Plains.”)

Among his other books are We Talk, You Listen (1970), Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties: An Indian Declaration of Independence (1974), God Is Red: A Native View of Religion (1994), and a variety of works on history, theology, and contemporary Indian life.

He taught at the University of Arizona from 1978 to 1990, and then at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He retired in 2000 but continued to write and lecture until his death.

Died: Nov. 13, 2005

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