Charles Eastman

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Charles Eastman, 1897

Charles Alexander Eastman (* 1858 , † 1939 - maiden name: Hakadah, later Dakota name: Ohíye S'a ) was an Indian doctor and writer. He had an Anglo-American mother.

Eastman was one of the Santee - Sioux and studied in Boston Medicine. In his autobiographical works he describes the Indians' closeness to nature as a result of their upbringing. Eastman had to witness the massacre of the US Army of the Sioux at the Wounded Knee and was thereby disillusioned in his sympathy for Christian charity.

In The Indian Soul (1911), as an ethnologist, he compares Indian and Christian beliefs and customs. Eastman's The Indian Today (1915) advocates a humanization of Indian politics , which should enable the Indian to go his own way. Eastman resists the materialistic worldview of his contemporaries of every color and calls for reflection on tradition and spirituality.

He was instrumental in building the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).

“In the life of the Indian there was only one indispensable duty - respect for the invisible and the eternal. To express this respect was more important to every Indian than the daily food. He wakes up at daybreak, puts on his moccasins and strides down to the water's edge. He throws clear, cold water full of hands on his face or dips his whole body. After the bath, he stands upright in the first red of dawn, with his face to the rising sun, and offers a silent prayer. […] Whenever the red hunter sees something impressive and sublime on his daily hunt - a black thundercloud a shining rainbow over the mountain, or a white waterfall in the heart of a green canyon, or the vast prairie covered with a blood-red sunset - he pauses for a moment in a devout posture. He does not consider it necessary to sanctify any one of seven days, because he knows that God has made every day for him if he knows how to respect nature. "

- Ohíye S'a

bibliography

  • Memories of an Indian Boyhood . Autobiography. McClure, Philips, 1902
  • Red Hunters and Animal People. Legend. Harper & Brothers, 1904
  • The Madness of Bald Eagle , legend. 1905
  • Old Indian Days . Legend. McClure, 1907; University of Nebraska Press, 1991
    • Übers. Elisabeth Friederichs: Indian stories from ancient times. Insel-Verlag 1985, 1996; First edition Winona. Indian stories from ancient times. Harvest Publishing House, Hamburg 1928
  • Wigwam Evenings: Sioux Folk Tales Retold. (with his wife), legend; Little, Brown, 1909
  • The Soul of the Indian: An Interpretation. Houghton, 1911
    • Translator Andrea Pia Kölbl, Robert Josef Kozljanic: The soul of the Indian. A Sioux Indian reports on the beliefs and customs of his people. Albunea, Munich 2009 ISBN 978-3-937656-10-6 In Google books read
  • Indian Child Life . Non-fiction. Little, Brown, 1913
  • Indian Scout Talks: A Guide for Scouts and Campfire Girls . Non-fiction. Little, Brown, 1914
  • The Indian Today: The Past and Future of the Red American . Doubleday-Page, 1915
  • From the Deep Woods to Civilization: Chapters in the Autobiography of an Indian . Little, Brown, 1916
  • Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains , Little, Brown, 1918

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ TC McLuhan: ... Like the breath of a buffalo in winter. Hoffmann & Campe , Hamburg 1984. p. 42.
personal data
SURNAME Eastman, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eastman, Charles Alexander (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian doctor and writer
DATE OF BIRTH 1858
DATE OF DEATH 1939