Product Description
FOREWORD"We also have a religion which was given to our forefathers, and has been handed down to us their children. It teaches us to be thankful, to be united, and to love one another! We never quarrel about religion."Thus spoke the great Seneca orator, Red Jacket, in his superb reply to Missionary Cram more than a century ago, and I have often heard the same thought expressed by my countrymen.I have attempted to paint the religious life of the typical American Indian as it was before he knew the white man. I have long wished to do this, because I cannot find that it has ever been seriously, adequately, and sincerely done. The religion of the Indian is the last thing about him that the man of another race will ever understand.First, the Indian does not speak of these deep matters so long as he believes in them, and when he has ceased to believe he speaks inaccurately and slightingly.Second, even if he can be induced to speak, the racial and religious prejudice of the other stands in the way of his sympathetic comprehension.Third, practically all existing studies on this subject have been made during the transition period, when the original beliefs and philosophy of the native American were already undergoing rapid disintegration.There are to be found here and there superficial accounts of strange customs and ceremonies, of which the symbolism or inner meaning was largely hidden from the observer; and there has been a great deal of material collected in recent years which is without value because it is modern and hybrid, inextricably mixed with Biblical legend and Caucasian philosophy. Some of it has even been invented for commercial purposes. Give a reservation Indian a present, and he will possibly provide you with sacred songs, a mythology, and folk-lore to order!My little book does not pretend to be a scientific treatise. It is as true as I can make it to my childhood teaching and ancestral ideals, but from the human, not the ethnological standpoint. I have not cared to pile up more dry bones, but to clothe them with flesh and blood. So much as has been written by strangers of our ancient faith and worship treats it chiefly as matter of curiosity. I should like to emphasize its universal quality, its personal appeal!The first missionaries, good men imbued with the narrowness of their age, branded us as pagans and devil-worshipers, and demanded of us that we abjure our false gods before bowing the knee at their sacred altar. They even told us that we were eternally lost, unless we adopted a tangible symbol and professed a particular form of their hydra-headed faith.We of the twentieth century know better! We know that all religious aspiration, all sincere worship, can have but one source and one goal. We know that the God of the lettered and the unlettered, of the Greek and the barbarian, is after all the same God; and, like Peter, we perceive that He is no respecter of persons, but that in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is acceptable to Him. ... Read more

Product Description
"We also have a religion which was given to our forefathers, and has been handed down to us their children. It teaches us to be thankful, to be united, and to love one another! We never quarrel about religion."

Thus spoke the great Seneca orator, Red Jacket, in his superb reply to Missionary Cram more than a century ago, and I have often heard the same thought expressed by my countrymen.

I have attempted to paint the religious life of the typical American Indian as it was before he knew the white man. I have long wished to do this, because I cannot find that it has ever been seriously, adequately, and sincerely done. The religion of the Indian is the last thing about him that the man of another race will ever understand.


Download The Soul Of The Indian An Interpretation Now! ... Read more

Product Description
Illustrated. Formatted for the Kindle. Linked Contents.
CONTENTS
Part One
MY INDIAN CHILDHOOD
I. "The Pitiful Last"
II. Early Hardships
III. An Indian Sugar Camp
IV. Games and Sports
V. An Indian Boy's Training
VI. The Boy Hunter
VII. Evening in the Lodge
Part Two
STORIES OF REAL INDIANS
I. Winona's Childhood
II. Winona's Girlhood
III. A Midsummer Feast
IV. The Faithfulness of Long Ears
V. Snana's Fawn
VI. Hakadah's First Offering
VII. The Grave of the Dog

Excerpt:
A LETTER TO THE CHILDREN
Dear Children: — You will like to know that the man who wrote these true stories is himself one of the people he describes so pleasantly and so lovingly for you. He hopes that when you have finished this book, the Indians will seem to you very real and very friendly. He is not willing that all your knowledge of the race that formerly possessed this continent should come from the lips of strangers and enemies, or that you should think of them as blood-thirsty and treacherous, as savage and unclean.

War, you know, is always cruel, and it is true that there were stern fighting men among the Indians, as well as among your own forefathers. But there were also men of peace, men generous and kindly and religious. There were tender mothers, and happy little ones, and a home life that was pure and true. There were high ideals of loyalty and honor. It will do you good and make you happier to read of these things.

Perhaps you wonder how a "real, live Indian" could write a book. I will tell you how. The story of this man's life is itself as wonderful as a fairy tale. Born in a wigwam, as he has told you, and early left motherless, he was brought up, like the little Hiawatha, by a good grandmother. When he was four years old, war broke out between his people and the United States government. The Indians were defeated and many of them were killed. Some fled northward into Canada and took refuge under the British flag, among them the writer of this book, with his grandmother and an uncle. His father was captured by the whites.

After ten years of that wild life, now everywhere at an end, of which he has given you a true picture in his books, his father, whom the good President Lincoln had pardoned and released from the military prison, made the long and dangerous journey to Canada to find and bring back his youngest son. The Sioux were beginning to learn that the old life must go, and that, if they were to survive at all, they must follow "the white man's road," long and hard as it looked to a free people. They were beginning to plow and sow and send their children to school.

Ohiyesa, the Winner, as the boy was called, came home with his father to what was then Dakota Territory, to a little settlement of Sioux homesteaders. Everything about the new life was strange to him, and at first he did not like it at all. He had thoughts of running away and making his way back to Canada. But his father, Many Lightnings, who had been baptized a Christian under the name of Jacob Eastman, told him that he, too, must take a new name, and he chose that of Charles Alexander Eastman. He was told to cut off his long hair and put on citizen's clothing. Then his father made him choose between going to school and working at the plow.

Ohiyesa tried plowing for half a day. It was hard work to break the tough prairie sod with his father's oxen and the strange implement they gave him. He decided to try school. Rather to his surprise, he liked it, and he kept on. His teachers were pleased with his progress, and soon better opportunities opened to him. He was sent farther east to a better school, where he continued to do well, and soon went higher. In the long summer vacations he worked, on farms, in shops and offices; and in winter he studied and played football and all the other games you play, until after about fifteen or sixteen years he found himself with the diplomas of a famous college and a great university, a Bac ... Read more

Product Description
Charles Eastman tells about his life growing up as a member of the Dakota tribe of the Sioux nation near Redwood Falls, Minnesota. Charles' Native American name was Ohiyesa but he was originally called "Hakadah", the Pitiful Last because his mother died at birth. One of the founders of the Boy Scouts, Ohiyesa worked tirelessly on a local and national level to champion the cause of his people.

Part of the History Alive! series, this volume contains three of Ohiyesa's most famous books.
a) Indian Boyhood which vividly re-creates his life as a young warrior
b) Old Indian Days which recounts the life of the Native American
c) The Soul of the Indian which delves into the depths of Native American spirituality

As in all History Alive! books, this volume lets an eye-witness bring to life the events that shaped the world as he knew it. As we read, history rings in our ears. ... Read more

Product Description
ContentsPART ONE. THE WARRIORI. THE LOVE OF ANTELOPEII. THE MADNESS OF BALD EAGLEIII. THE SINGING SPIRITIV. THE FAMINEV. THE CHIEF SOLDIERVI. THE WHITE MAN'S ERRANDVII. THE GRAVE OF THE DOGPART TWO. THE WOMANI. WINONA, THE WOMAN-CHILDII. WINONA, THE CHILD-WOMANIII. SNANA'S FAWNIV. SHE-WHO-HAS-A-SOULV. THE PEACE-MAKERVI. BLUE SKYVII. THE FAITHFULNESS OF LONG EARSVIII. THE WAR MAIDENGLOSSARY ... Read more

Product Description
The classic historical description of the religious life of the typical American Indian as it was before he knew the views of the settlers.

Charles Alexander Eastman was a Native American writer, physician, and reformer. He was of Santee Sioux and Anglo-American ancestry. Active in politics and issues on American Indian rights, he also helped found the Boy Scouts of America. ... Read more

Product Description
Classic Native American Nonfiction.History.According to Wikipedia, "Charles Alexander Eastman (February 19, 1858 - January 8, 1939) was a Native American writer, physician, and reformer. He was of Santee Sioux and Anglo-American ancestry. Active in politics and issues on American Indian rights, he also helped found the Boy Scouts of America....He was named Hakadah at his birth on a reservation near Redwood Falls, Minnesota. In Dakota, Hakadah means the "pitiful last", as his mother Mary died at his birth. He was later named Ohíye S’a (Dakota for "wins often") after winning a rough game of lacrosse....In 1933, Eastman was the first to receive the Indian Achievement Award." ... Read more

Product Description
Classic Native American Nonfiction. Religious beliefs. According to Wikipedia, "Charles Alexander Eastman (February 19, 1858 - January 8, 1939) was a Native American writer, physician, and reformer. He was of Santee Sioux and Anglo-American ancestry. Active in politics and issues on American Indian rights, he also helped found the Boy Scouts of America....He was named Hakadah at his birth on a reservation near Redwood Falls, Minnesota. In Dakota, Hakadah means the "pitiful last", as his mother Mary died at his birth. He was later named Ohíye S’a (Dakota for "wins often") after winning a rough game of lacrosse....In 1933, Eastman was the first to receive the Indian Achievement Award." ... Read more

Product Description
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTEThe author of this book was born in a teepee of buffalo hide near Redwood Falls, Minn., during the winter of 1858. His father was a full-blooded Sioux called "Many Lightnings," (Tawakanhdeota). His mother, the granddaughter of Chief "Cloud Man" of the Sioux and daughter of a well-known army officer, died shortly after his birth. He was named Ohiyesa (The Winner).The baby was reared to boyhood by the care of his grandmother. When he was four years old, the so-called "Minnesota massacre" of 1862 separated him from his father and elder brothers and only sister, and drove him with a remnant of the eastern Sioux into exile in Manitoba. There for over ten years he lived the original nomadic life of his people in the family of an uncle, from whom he received the Spartan training of an Indian youth of that day. The knowledge thus gained of life's realities and the secrets of nature, as well as of the idealistic philosophy of the Indian, he has always regarded as a most valuable part of his education.When Ohiyesa had reached the age of fifteen years, and had been presented with a flint-lock musket in token of his arrival at the estate of young manhood, he was astonished by the reappearance of the father whose supposed death at the hands of white men he had been taught that he must some day avenge. He learned that this father had adopted the religion and customs of the hated race, and was come to take home his youngest son.Ohiyesa's new home was a pioneer log cabin on a farm at Flandreau, Dakota Territory, where a small group of progressive Indians had taken up homesteads like white men and were earning an independent livelihood. His long hair was cropped, he was put into a suit of citizen's clothing and sent off to a mission day school. At first reluctant, he soon became interested, and two years later voluntarily walked 150 miles to attend a larger and better school at Santee, Neb., where he made rapid progress under the veteran missionary educator, Dr. Alfred L. Riggs, and was soon advanced to the preparatory department of Beloit College, Wisconsin. His father had adopted his wife's English name of Eastman, and the boy named himself Charles Alexander.After two years at Beloit, young Eastman went on to Knox College, Ill.; then east to Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire, and to Dartmouth College, where Indians had found a special welcome since colonial days. He was graduated from Dartmouth in 1887, and went immediately to Boston University, where he took the medical course, and was graduated in 1890 as orator of his class. The entire time spent in primary, preparatory, college, and professional education, including the mastery of the English language, was seventeen years, or about two years less than is required by the average white youth.Doctor Eastman went directly to the large Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota as Government physician; and during the "Ghost dance" troubles of 1890-91 he was in charge of the wounded Indian prisoners in their emergency hospital. In 1891 he married Miss Elaine Goodale of Berkshire County, Mass.; and in 1893 went to St. Paul, Minn., with his wife and child. While engaged there in the practice of medicine he was approached by a representative of the International Committee of the Y. M. C. A., and served for three years as their field secretary in the United States and Canada.In 1897 Dr. Eastman went to Washington as attorney for his tribe, to push their interests at the national capital, and from 1899 to 1902 he served again as a Government physician to the Sioux. Beginning in 1903, he spent about seven years giving permanent family names to the Sioux, and thus helping to establish the legal descent of their property, under the direction of the Indian Bureau.His first book, "Indian Boyhood," was published in 1902. It is the story of his own early life in the wilds of Canada, ... ... Read more

Product Description
First published 1907. Eastman was a Native American, writer, physician and reformer of Santee-Sioux and Anglo-American ancestry. He was active in politics and American Indian rights and helped found the Boy Scouts of America. ... Read more

Product Description
Five Classic Native American books by Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa):Indian Boyhood, Indian Heroes And Great Chieftains, The Indian Today, The Past and Future of the First American, Old Indian Days, and The Soul Of The Indian:An Interpretation. According to Wikipedia, "Charles Alexander Eastman (February 19, 1858 - January 8, 1939) was a Native American writer, physician, and reformer. He was of Santee Sioux and Anglo-American ancestry. Active in politics and issues on American Indian rights, he also helped found the Boy Scouts of America....He was named Hakadah at his birth on a reservation near Redwood Falls, Minnesota. In Dakota, Hakadah means the "pitiful last", as his mother Mary died at his birth. He was later named Ohíye S’a (Dakota for "wins often") after winning a rough game of lacrosse....In 1933, Eastman was the first to receive the Indian Achievement Award." ... Read more

Product Description
Classic Native American Nonfiction.15 biographies of Native American heros.According to Wikipedia, "Charles Alexander Eastman (February 19, 1858 - January 8, 1939) was a Native American writer, physician, and reformer. He was of Santee Sioux and Anglo-American ancestry. Active in politics and issues on American Indian rights, he also helped found the Boy Scouts of America....He was named Hakadah at his birth on a reservation near Redwood Falls, Minnesota. In Dakota, Hakadah means the "pitiful last", as his mother Mary died at his birth. He was later named Ohíye S’a (Dakota for "wins often") after winning a rough game of lacrosse....In 1933, Eastman was the first to receive the Indian Achievement Award."
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains (Dover Books on the American Indian)
If you are interested in the history of the American Indian this is a book you should read.

Wonderful Perspective
Who better to chronicle the great deeds, sorrows, bravery and honor of some of America's greatest chiefs than a Santee Sioux?Physician Charles A. Eastman seeks to correct many misunderstandings about Native Americans and portrays leaders in the Sioux, Cheyenne and Nez Perce nations in a realistic light.

Here are the stories of some of the famous chiefs, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Red Cloud, as well as tales of those whose names may not be as familiar to us, such as Two Strike, Dull Knife, Hole-in-the-Day, Tamahay or Gall.Highlighted by beautiful black and white portraits, this book is a real eye opener.Anyone who loves the history of the American West will enjoy reading this interesting perspective, told with honor by a true American.

Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains (Dover Books on the American Indian)
Everything stated about this company is true. If this level of satisfaction and quality of merchandise hold, then I will buy again from them. ... Read more