Other editions of book The Soul of the Indian

Charles Alexander Eastman (1858-1939) was raised among the Sioux and decided to become a doctor in order to be of the greatest service to his people. He also became a distinguished writer and an interpreter of Native American life and customs. The Soul of the Indian is a rare eye-witness account of native religion with its ceremonial and symbolic worship, oral scriptures and view of the spirit world.

Raised among the Sioux until the age of 15, Charles Alexander Eastman (1858–1939) resolved to become a physician in order to be of the greatest service to his people. Upon completing his education at Boston University School of Medicine, he accepted an appointment to a South Dakota Indian reservation, where he was the only doctor available to the victims of the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. With the encouragement of his wife, he further distinguished himself both as a writer and as a uniquely qualified interpreter of Native American ways. His writings offer authentic, sometimes stirring views of a world that has forever changed.In The Soul of the Indian, Eastman brings to life the rich spirituality and morality of the Native Americans as they existed before contact with missionaries and other whites. This is a rare firsthand expression of native religion, without the filters imposed by translators or anthropologists. Rather than a scientific treatise, Eastman has written a book, "as true as I can make it to my childhood teaching and ancestral ideals, but from the human, not the ethnological standpoint." His discussions of the forms of ceremonial and symbolic worship, the unwritten scriptures, and the spirit world emphasize the universal quality and personal appeal of Native American religion.

Eastman was a Native American physician, writer, national lecturer, and reformer. He was of Santee Sioux and Anglo-American ancestry. Active in politics and issues on American Indian rights, he worked to improve the lives of youths, and founded 32 Native American chapters of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). He also helped found the Boy Scouts of America. He is considered the first Native American author to write American history from the native point of view.

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

“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! - Taken from "The Soul Of The Indian" written by Charles Alexander (Ohiyesa) Eastman

Charles Alexander Eastman, an educated and well-known Sioux, saw both sides of the great divide between Indians and whites, and he wrote eleven books attempting to reconcile the two cultures. Although he was a convert to Christianity, Eastman never lost his sense of the wholeness and beauty of the Indian’s relation to his existence and to the natural world.These six essays on the Indian’s spiritual beliefs and cultural habits, told in very personal terms and coupled with seven folk tales, illuminate the high ethics and morality of a culture that few people know about.The six essays are: The Great Mystery, The Family Altar, Ceremonial and Symbolic Worship, Barbarism and the Moral Code, The Unwritten Scriptures, and On the Borderland of Spirits.The seven Native American tales are: The Buffalo and the Field Mouse, The Frogs and the Crane, The Falcon and the Duck, The Raccoon and the Bee Tree, The Comrades, The Runaways, and The Magic Arrows.

Eastman was a Native American physician, writer, national lecturer, and reformer. He was of Santee Sioux and Anglo-American ancestry. Active in politics and issues on American Indian rights, he worked to improve the lives of youths, and founded 32 Native American chapters of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). He also helped found the Boy Scouts of America. He is considered the first Native American author to write American history from the native point of view.

Charles Alexander Eastman, an educated and well-known Sioux, saw both sides of the great divide between Indians and whites, and he wrote eleven books attempting to reconcile the two cultures. Although he was a convert to Christianity, Eastman never lost his sense of the wholeness and beauty of the Indian's relation to his existence and to the natural world.These six essays on the Indian's spiritual beliefs and cultural habits, told in very personal terms and coupled with seven folk tales, illuminate the high ethics and morality of a culture that few people know about.The six essays are: The Great Mystery, The Family Altar, Ceremonial and Symbolic Worship, Barbarism and the Moral Code, The Unwritten Scriptures, and On the Borderland of Spirits.The seven Native American tales are: The Buffalo and the Field Mouse, The Frogs and the Crane, The Falcon and the Duck, The Raccoon and the Bee Tree, The Comrades, The Runaways, and The Magic Arrows.