The Essential Writings of Charles Eastman. Charles A. Eastman

       Charles A. Eastman

      The Essential Writings of Charles Eastman

      Indian Boyhood, Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains, The Soul of the Indian & From the Deep Woods to Civilization

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      2018 OK Publishing

      ISBN 978-80-272-4512-3

Table of Contents

       Indian Boyhood

       Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains

       The Soul of the Indian

       From the Deep Woods to Civilization

      Indian Boyhood

       Table of Contents

Table of Contents

       I. Earliest Recollections

       I. Hadakah, “The Pitiful Last”

       II. Early Hardships

       III. My Indian Grandmother

       IV. An Indian Sugar Camp

       V. A Midsummer Feast

       II. An Indian Boy’s Training

       III. My Plays and Playmates

       I. Games and Sports

       II. My Playmates

       III. The Boy Hunter

       IV. Hakadah’s First Offering

       V. Family Traditions

       I. A Visit to Smoky Day

       II. The Stone Boy

       VI. Evening in the Lodge

       I. Evening in the Lodge

       II. Adventures of My Uncle

       VII. The End of the Bear Dance

       VIII. The Maidens’ Feast

       IX. More Legends

       I. A Legend of Devil’s Lake

       II. Manitoshaw’s Hunting

       X. Indian Life and Adventure

       I. Life in the Woods

       II. A Winter Camp

       III. Wild Harvests

       IV. A Meeting on the Plains

       V. An Adventurous Journey

       XI. The Laughing Philosopher

       XII. First Impressions of Civilization

      I. Earliest Recollections

       Table of Contents

I. Hadakah, “The Pitiful Last”

       Table of Contents

      What boy would not be an Indian for a while when he thinks of the freest life in the world? This life was mine. Every day there was a real hunt. There was real game. Occasionally there was a medicine dance away off in the woods where no one could disturb us, in which the boys impersonated their elders, Brave Bull, Standing Elk, High Hawk, Medicine Bear, and the rest. They painted and imitated their fathers and grandfathers to the minutest detail, and accurately too, because they had seen the real thing all their lives.

      We were not only good mimics but we were close students of nature. We studied the habits of animals just as you study your books. We watched the men of our people and represented them in our play; then learned to emulate them in our lives.

      No people have a better use of their five senses than the children of the wilderness. We could smell as well as hear and see. We could feel and taste as well as we could see and hear. Nowhere has the memory been more fully developed than in the wild life, and I can still see wherein I owe much to my early training.

      Of course I myself do not remember when I first saw the day, but my brothers have often recalled the event with much mirth; for it was a custom of the Sioux that when a boy was born his brother must plunge into the water, or roll in the snow naked if it was winter time; and if he was not big enough to do either of these himself,