Vine Deloria, Jr. And the

Vine Deloria, Jr. And the American Indian Movement The twentieth century," wrote Vine Deloria, Jr., "has produced a world of conflicting visions, intense emotions, and unpredictable events, and the opportunities for grasping the substance of life have faded as the pace of activity has increased" (Neihardt 1979).

These were typically strong words of a man who spent much of that century attempting to alter the image of Native Americans in his home country in the face of ongoing systematic apartheid through his extensive literary output, his activism, and his activities as a college professor at the University of Arizona and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

As Reed (2005) has noted, one of Deloria's strengths as a writer and activist was his sardonic wit and humor, which he deployed in order to provoke people to think deeper about white treachery against Native Americans. Deloria would write in his most famous book, Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto (1969), "We have brought the white man a long way in 500 years..

from a childish search for mythical cities of gold and fountains of youth to the simple recognition that lands are essential for human existence." Such lines are typical of Deloria's direct form of literary engagement with the reader - and his unapologetic stance, which mixes humor with anger in a potent brew of social historical inquiry. Among Deloria's many controversial view points was the idea that corporate culture and technological advancement were destroying life in America.

The only way to avoid going in this destructive direction would be to revert back to the tribal ways of ancient Native American life, and thus find salvation (Johnson 2005). This spiritual message resonates throughout Deloria's book. Indeed, considering the fact that Deloria's academic background was in theology and law, it makes sense that he should seek to unite these two seemingly disparate disciplines in his call for fair treatment of American Indians.

At the same time, Deloria was long critical of academics' treatment of Native American people - particularly the efforts of anthropologists. "The massive amount of useless knowledge produced by anthropologists attempting to capture real Indians in a network of theories has contributed substantially to the invisibility of Indian people today" (Deloria 1969). Deloria was also opposed to the scientific view that Native American Indians had migrated to this country over a Bering Straits bridge - a theory that is still held to be true today.

Deloria instead argued in favor of "Indian creationism" - the idea that the Indian people were native to this land and have been here since the beginning of time. Despite his controversial views and accusations of arrogance, Deloria nonetheless provided Native Americans.