Today In History: Ella Cara Deloria Is Born
The camp circle was on the move again. Whenever one site wore out and became unsanitary, or whenever it was time to go elsewhere to hunt deer or to gather the fruits in season, the magistrates whose duty it was to think and plan for the people ordered this move. And at such times everyone must obey. To remain behind was to be without protection.
The day was oppressive, hot and heavy. The air was filled with dry dust that rose only so high and then hovered there, enveloping and moving with the line of march—fine dust, continually stirred up by the feet of humans and animals and by the ends of travois poles that scraped along behind the packhorses. Up hill and down dale the column crawled, picking its way over the trackless land.
The young wife Blue Bird could scarcely sit her horse another instant. Oh, to dismount! But the kinship rule of avoidance kept her silent as long as it was her father-in-law who walked ahead leading her horse. At last, mercifully, he handed the rope to his wife and dropped behind to walk with a friend.
-- Ella Cara Deloria, Waterlily, Chapter 1.
Born January 31st, 1889 on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota to parents of mixed Euro-American and Sioux Indian descent, Ella Cara Deloria was a Dakota Sioux scholar, ethnologist, writer, and translator. Deloria grew up speaking both Lakota and Dakota, and attended English language, Episcopal schools before going to Oberlin College and then to Teachers College, Columbia University where she earned a B.S. in 1915. Closely associated with German-American anthropologist Franz Boas who taught at Columbia University, Deloria dedicated to him her work, Dakota Texts, which were translated tales of her peoples. After graduating from Teachers College, Deloria taught in Sioux Falls; worked in the YWCA health education program for Indian schools; and developed a significant physical education program at Haskell Indian school in Lawrence, Kansas. Among her other important translated works were: Dakota Grammar (1941, reprinted 2011), and Speaking of Indians (1944, reissued 1998). In 1943 she received the Indian Achievement Award.
Beyond non fiction, she dedicated her sole novel, Waterlily, to American anthropologist and folklorist Ruth Benedict who also studied at Columbia University. Waterlily, though grounded in experience, explored the daily life of a Teton Sioux woman, and was published posthumously. A gifted storyteller, Deloria is described by Susan Gardner as both "an ideal participant and observer", becoming "her people's biographer" -- and one who preserved a wealth of linguistic and cultural information for continuing scholarship. Ella Cara Deloria died on February 12th, 1971, at 82 years of age.
The following articles are drawn from Proquest Historical Newspapers, which informs and inspires classroom teaching and learning.
- Indian Girls Will Tell of Y.W.C.A. Work: Young Women Who Are Laboring with Own People to Speak While Here, Both Well Experienced. Ella Deloria Author Pageant Showing History of Dakota Tribes. (1921, Apr 24). San Francisco Chronicle (1869-1922)
- Deloria, E.C. (1933, Apr 13). 'Adopt a Family' Not New: Plains Indian Tribes Used This Plan in Early Times. New York Times (1923-)
- Navajo Indians Found to Need Aid in Stopping Soil Erosion. (1939, Sep 19). The Christian Science Monitor (1908-)
- Pembroke Indian Pageant. (1941, Nov 30). New York Times (1923-)
- Ella Deloria Is 1943 Winner of Indian Medal. (1943, Sep 19). Chicago Daily Tribune (1923-1963)
- Award Winner. (1943, Oct 21). The Christian Science Monitor (1908-)
- Indian Council Fire to Present Annual Award on Sept. 28. (1944, Aug 13). Chicago Daily Tribune (1923-1963)
- U. S. Economic Aid to Indians Urged: La Farge Sees Tribes Facing Destruction-- Action By Senate to Be Asked Warns of Migration. (1957, Apr 12). New York Times (1923-)
- Talamantez, I. (1988, Jun 05). A Sioux Anthropologist Remembers Teton Women. Los Angeles Times (1923-1995)
- Paul, M. (1995, Jul 23). Novel Tour Lets You Trek the Trails of Pioneers. Chicago Tribune (1963-1996)
Tips:
- Cotera, María Eugenia. Native Speakers Ella Deloria, Zora Neale Hurston, Jovita González, and the Poetics of Culture. 1st ed. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008. e-book
- Deloria, Ella Cara and Vine Deloria, Jr. Speaking of Indians. [Potomac, M.D.}: Pickel Partners Publishing, 2015. e-book
- Deloria, Ella Cara. Waterlily. Lincoln: Bison Books, 2013
- Deloria, Ella Cara. The Dakota Way of Life. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, [1922]. e-book
- Deloria, Ella Cara. Dakota Texts. New York, G. E. Stechert & Co., Agents, 1932. e-book
- Hertzberg, Hazel. Sioux Experiences Past and Present An Annotated Bibliography. N.p., 1970. Hazel W. Hertzberg Collection, Teachers College Digital Collections
- Leckie, Shirley A., and Nancy J. Parezo. Their Own Frontier Women Intellectuals Re-Visioning the American West. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008. e-book
Images:
- Official Map of the Territory of Dakota, Showing the Two General Divisions of Dakota, South and North, the Land Districts, Indian Reservations, Counties, Towns and Railroads, 1886, Courtesy of Boston Public Library
- Poster Image: Portrait of Ella Cara Deloria, from Waterlily
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