Scholar Vine Deloria Jr., a Standing Rock Sioux member who died Sunday at age 72 in Golden, galvanized social and institutional change with his 1969 manifesto, “Custer Died for Your Sins.”
His seminal work forced anthropologists and government officials to amend their relationships with tribal people, from returning human remains and artifacts to shifting federal control to tribal officials.
A descendant of Sitting Bull and of legendary Yanktonal medicine man Saswe, and son of a Christian minister, Deloria was born in Martin, S.D., in 1933. He served in the U.S. Marines and graduated from Iowa State University and the Lutheran School of Theology.
Deloria earned a law degree from the University of Colorado. He taught at the University of Arizona from 1978 to 1990 and then at CU’s law school and in the history, ethnic-studies, religious-studies and political-science departments until his retirement in 2000.
He served as director of the National Congress of American Indians from 1964 to 1967. Under his guidance, an organization hemorrhaging members and influence became a strong presence in Washington, D.C. His 1965 editorial “Now Is the Time” helped establish tribal autonomy and installed Deloria as “our Martin Luther King,” in the words of Indian-rights attorney Charles Wilkinson.
Deloria published “Custer Died for Your Sins” and its 1970 sequel, “We Talk, You Listen,” at the apex of the Indian-rights movement. Wilma Mankiller, former principal chief of Cherokee Nation, called Deloria’s books the clearest articulation of “the unspoken emotions, dreams and lifeways of our people.”
Reaction to “Custer Died for Your Sins” instigated the American Anthropological Association’s first ethics panel on tribes and sacred artifacts, and inspired the wry Floyd Red Crow Westerman song “Here Come the Anthros,” from the 1970 album named after Deloria’s book.
The gauntlets Deloria flung before anthropologists included challenging the postulate that American Indians had immigrated to the U.S. via what Deloria called “the imaginary Bering Strait bridge, which comes and goes at the convenience of the scholar.”
Deloria remained an activist while focusing on his writing, which earned the 2002 Wallace Stegner Award, the 1999 Woodcraft Circle Writer of the Year award and other honors he accepted with humility.
In his speech for the 2005 American Indian Visionary Award, Deloria suggested others, including Westerman, as more appropriate honorees.
“I think you just jump back and forth between the poles of radical and moderate,” he once said, explaining his philosophy of using humor and candor to advance his causes. “You can bring up very radical things by using a moderate style.”
Survivors include his wife, Barbara Deloria, of Golden; sons Phil Deloria of Ann Arbor, Mich., and Daniel Deloria of Moore, Okla.; daughter Jeanne Deloria of Tucson; brother Philip Samuel Deloria of Albuquerque; sister Barbara Sanchez of Tucson; and seven grandchildren. Services are at 3:30 p.m. Friday at Mount Vernon Event Center in Golden.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
