Among us all men were created sons of God and stood erect, as conscious of their divinity.
Charles Eastman Quotes
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| Birth: | 19th February, 1858 |
| Death: | 8th January, 1939 |
| Nationality: | American |
| Profession: | Reformer, Physician, Professor, Writer |
About
Eastman was named Hakadah at his birth, the translations from Dakota to English being "pitiful last". His father strongly supported his sons' getting an education in European-American style schools. Eastman and his older brother John attended mission and preparatory schools, and college. Eastman first attended Beloit College and Knox colleges; he graduated from Dartmouth College in 1887. He went on to medical school at Boston University, where he graduated in 1889 and became the first Native American to be certified as a European-style doctor.
Charles Eastman worked as an agency physician for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Indian Health Service on the Pine Ridge Reservation and later at the Crow Creek Reservation, both in South Dakota. He cared for Indians after the Wounded Knee massacre. He later established a private medical practice after being forced out of his position, but was not able to make it succeed. Between 1894-98, Eastman established 32 Indian groups of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), and established leadership programs and outdoor youth camps. In 1899, he helped recruit students for the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, which had been established as the first boarding school run by the government.
In 1902 Eastman published a memoir, Indian Boyhood, recounting his first fifteen years of life among the Sioux during the later years of the nineteenth century. In the following two decades, he wrote ten more books, most concerned with his Native American culture.
Goodale Eastman died in 1953 and was buried in Northampton.
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