GOLDEN, Colo. - Vine Deloria Jr., the intellectual star of the American Indian renaissance, passed away on Nov. 13 after struggling for several weeks with declining health. His immeasurable influence became immediately apparent in an outpouring of tributes from all corners of Indian country. ''I cannot think of any words I could possibly say that even begin to capture the significance of this man and his work among Native people and on our behalf for the past half-century,'' said Richard West Jr., director of the National Museum of the American Indian, in a message to his staff. ''He has been our ranking scholar and intellectual light for all of those years.'' The NMAI was only one of many Native institutions that Deloria made possible or deeply influenced during his 72 years. From the activist end of the spectrum, a tribute on the Colorado American Indian Movement Web site said, ''It is safe to say that without the example provided by the writing and the thinking of Vine Deloria Jr., there likely would have been no American Indian Movement, there would be no international indigenous peoples' movement as it exists today, and there would be little hope for the future of indigenous peoples in the Americas.'' Deloria wrote more than 20 books, starting with his best seller ''Custer Died for your Sins: An Indian Manifesto'' in 1969. His powerful, acerbic criticism made a deep impression on the dominant culture as well as the activist movement then erupting on the scene. But he has an even longer career working behind the scenes of Native organizations. He was drafted, as he put it, to be executive director of the National Congress of American Indians in 1964. In a statement, the NCAI described his role in its history: ''As Executive Director he restored financial and managerial stability and rescued the organization from insolvency and internal differences. More importantly, with his writing and speeches he became a leading voice against termination and for reform of federal Indian policy. He laid the groundwork for the federal policy of tribal self-determination that emerged in the late 1960s and the 1970 Nixon Statement on Indian Self-Determination. ''His leadership at NCAI marked a major turning point in federal Indian policy that continues to benefit Indian tribes and communities today.'' Deloria was a founding trustee of the NMAI when it consisted of the George Gustav Heye collection in New York City and helped guide its sale to the Smithsonian Institution. He was a major thinker in the movements for sacred land protection, for treaty rights and for the protection and repatriation of Indian remains. In spite of his trenchant criticism of European Christianity, he also served for a time on the executive committee of the Episcopal Church. He was a fourth-generation descendant of the Yankton Sioux prophet Saswe, and his father and grandfather were both prominent Episcopal churchmen. Time magazine once called Deloria one of the 10 most influential theologians of the 20th century. This March he received the second annual American Indian Visionary Award from Indian Country Today. In a self-deprecating acceptance speech abounding in anecdotes and teasing humor, Deloria gave credit to the remarkable generation of leaders with whom it was his privilege to work, beginning with his service at the NCAI. Deloria was born March 26, 1933 in Martin, S.D., on the border of the Pine Ridge Reservation. Although his lineage was predominately Yankton Dakota, his grandfather Philip, an Episcopal priest, had enrolled the family in the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, where he was stationed. He joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1954. In 1958 he graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor's degree in general science. In 1963, he received a master's degree from the Lutheran School of Theology in Illinois. After his stint at the NCAI, he pursued an academic career, culminating in the position of professor of history at the University of Colorado. He remained an incisive writer and social critic to the end. He refused an honorary degree from the University of Colorado because he disapproved of its performance during an athletic scandal. During his last year, he was at work on a major book on the miraculous deeds of Indian medicine men. The book will be issued by Fulcrum Publishing in the spring under the title ''The World We Used to Live In.'' In an interview with ICT earlier this year, Deloria divided his writings into three categories: his political essays, such as ''Custer'' and ''We Talk, You Listen: New Tribes, New Turf''; his legal studies; and his theological works. His legal works brought renewed attention to the tribes' treaties with the United States, which Deloria emphasized as recognition of Indian nationhood. In his theological writings, however, Deloria was at his most provocative. In seeking to explain the Indian understanding of the sacred to the European mindset, he found himself attacking both Christianity and modern science. His books tell the story in their titles: ''Red Earth, White Lies: Native Americans and the Myth of Scientific Fact'' and ''Evolution, Creationism and Other Modern Myths: A Critical Inquiry.'' A quote from the ''Custer'' manifesto serves well as his epitaph: ''The problems of Indians have always been ideological rather than social, political or economic ... It is vitally important that the Indian people pick the intellectual arena as the one in which to wage war.''
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Update article from December 2006:
http://indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096414093
