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Vine Deloria, Jr. (American Indians (Ready Reference series))

Author Profile

After receiving his B.S. degree from Iowa State University, Deloria studied for a career as a minister, earning an M.Th. from the Lutheran School of Theology in Illinois. Then he earned a J.D. from the University of Colorado, which enabled him to serve as the executive director of the National Congress of American Indians. He taught political science and Native American studies at the University of Arizona, which he left to direct the Indian studies program at the University of Colorado. Deloria lived in Golden, Colorado until his death in 2005.

Much of the power of Deloria’s writing came from his sharp-witted political satire, as manifested especially in two books on contemporary Indian life. His first book, Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto (1969), indicts the U.S. government’s treatment of Indians and has served as a manifesto for Indian activists. In We Talk, You Listen: New Tribes, New Turf (1970), he pleads for a return to tribalism, by which he means a return to a balanced relationship among people, land, and religion. He has written much about political and legal issues concerning Indian-white relations, including Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties: An Indian Declaration of Independence (1974); American Indians, American Justice (1983); and American Indian Policy in the Twentieth Century (1985). Best-known of his books on Indian religion is God Is Red (1973), in which he argues that Indian religions that promote an ecologically sound relationship with the environment are more appropriate in contemporary America than Christianity. He also edited A Sender of Words: Essays in Memory of John G. Neihardt (1984), a volume that contains essays on Black Elk Speaks.

Bibliography

Biolsi, Thomas, and Larry J. Zimmerman, eds. Indians and Anthropologists: Vine Deloria, Jr., and the Critique of Anthropology. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1997. A series of essays illuminate Deloria’s influence on anthropology and Native American studies.

Fortunate Eagle, Adam. Alcatraz! Alcatraz! 1994. Reprint. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002. Deloria’s involvement in AIM and Native American political movements is noted.

Matthiesen, Peter. In the Spirit of Crazy Horse. New York: Penguin, 1991. Provides information on AIM.

Tinker, George. Review of God Is Red, by Vine Deloria, Jr. American Indian Quarterly 18, no. 4 (1994). A perceptive review of the 1994 revised edition.

Warrior, Robert Allen. Tribal Secrets: Recovering American Indian Intellectual Traditions. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994. Deloria’s role in changing the approaches taken to the study of Native American literature is prominently featured.

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