Charles Eastman Writer

Gender: Male
Citizenship: United States
Born: Feb 19, 1858
Died: Jan 8, 1939

Charles Alexander Eastman was a Native American physician, writer, national lecturer, and reformer. In the early 20th century, he was "one of the most prolific authors and speakers on Sioux ethnohistory and American Indian affairs."

Eastman was of Santee Dakota, Anglo-American and French ancestry. Active in politics and issues on American Indian rights, he worked to improve the lives of youths, and founded thirty-two Native American chapters of the Young Men's Christian Association. He also helped found the Boy Scouts of America. He is considered the first Native American author to write American history from the Native point of view.

The American Indian was an individualist in religion as in war. He had neither a national army nor an organized church. religion

In every religion there is an element of the supernatural, varying with the influence of pure reason over its devotees. religion

The religion of the Indian is the last thing about him that the man of another race will ever understand. religion

There were no temples or shrines among us save those of nature. nature

Friendship is held to be the severest test of character. friendship