Vine Deloria, Jr.

Holly Boomer (National American University)

Ed. by Christopher Hugh Gair, University of Glasgow
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.6: Indigenous Writing and Culture of North America - United States.
Vol. editors: Joshua Bartlett (High Point University), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Sarah Henzi (Simon Fraser University), Padraig Kirwan (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University)

Dates

Born 26 Mar 1933
Died 13 Nov 2005
Activity 1960-2005

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Cultural Identities

First Nations/Indigenous US-American

Activities

Primary

Essayist
Polemicist

Resources

Deloria's Works

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Easily identified by only his first name, Vine Deloria, Jr., has achieved iconic status both in academia and in the American Indian community. He wasn't the first American Indian writer, but he was the most prolific and enduring writer about Indian issues. He was a modern warrior who used words as weapons. Born in 1933 and writing since the 1960s, Deloria shook up the establishment: government, academia, theologians, scientists, anthropologists and anyone else he came in contact with.

Deloria was born in Martin, SD, in March 1933. Martin is in the county of Bennett that at one time was part of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. His father, Vine, Sr., served on the Pine Ridge as an Episcopal missionary priest. His immediate family were members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, but his

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1876 words

Citation: Boomer, Holly. "Vine Deloria, Jr.". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 January 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1221, accessed 21 November 2024.]