Indian Boyhood

by Charles A. Eastman, David Reed Miller (Introduction)

Overview

Indian Boyhood (1902) was the literary debut of Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa), a Santee Sioux whose eleven books aimed at bringing whites and Indians closer together. The favorable reception of the autobiographical Indian Boyhood would lead him to write such classic works as Old Indian Days (1907), Wig warn Evenings: Sioux Folk Tales Retold (with Elaine Goodale Eastman, 1909), The Soul of the Indian (1911), From the Deep Woods to Civilization (1916), and Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains (1918), all reprinted as Bison Books.

At the beginning of Indian Boyhood Eastman recalls the 1862 Sioux Uprising in Minnesota that sent his family into exile in Canada. He describes his childhood there, which ended when his father, who had been presumed dead, appeared to take him back to the United States. An Indian boy's training, child-hood games, harvesting and feasts, legends told around a campfire--Eastman relates all aspects of the rich traditional life of the Santee Sioux, which had already passed away by the time this book was published.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803267190
Publisher:	Nebraska
Publication date:	12/01/1991
Series:	American Biography Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	295
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.67(d)
Age Range:	7 Years

About the Author

David Reed Miller, a professor in the Department of Indian Studies at Saskatchewan Indian Federated College, has written an introduction for this Bison Book edition.

Table of Contents

I	Earliest Recollections
I	Hakadah, "The Pitiful Last"	3
II	Early Hardships	11
III	My Indian Grandmother	21
IV	An Indian Sugar Camp	29
V	A Midsummer Feast	36
II	An Indian Boy's Training
III	My Plays And Playmates
I	Games and Sports	63
II	My Playmates	75
III	The Boy Hunter	86
IV	Hakadah's First Offering
V	Family Traditions
I	A Visit to Smoky Day	115
II	The Stone Boy	126
VI	Evening In The Lodge
I	Evening in the Lodge	141
II	Adventures of My Uncle	153
VII	The End Of The Bear Dance
VIII	The Maidens' Feast
IX	More Legends
I	A Legend of Devil's Lake	191
II	Manitoshaw's Hunting	200
X	Indian Life And Adventure
I	Life in the Woods	213
II	A Winter Camp	225
III	Wild Harvests	233
IV	A Meeting on the Plains	245
V	An Adventurous Journey	252
XI	The Laughing Philosopher
XII	First Impressions Of Civilization