Ohiye S’a, whose English
name was Charles Alexander Eastman, was a member of the Dakota tribe of Native
Americans. A writer and doctor, he was the first to write about tribal life
from the Native American viewpoint. Born in Minnesota
in 1858, Eastman wrote Indian Boyhood
in
1902. It tells about the first fifteen years of his life. Below is a passage
from Chapter X of Indian Boyhood
.
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To me, as a boy, this
wilderness was a paradise. It was a land of plenty. To be sure, we did not have
any of the luxuries of civilization, but we had every convenience and
opportunity and luxury of Nature. We had also the gift of enjoying our good
fortune, whatever dangers might lurk about us; and the truth is that we lived
in blessed ignorance of any life that was better than our own.
As soon as hunting in
the woods began, the customs regulating it were established. The council teepee
no longer existed. A hunting bonfire was kindled every morning at day-break, at
which each brave must appear and report. The man who failed to do this before
the party set out on the day’s hunt was harassed by ridicule.
As a rule, the hunters
started before sunrise, and the brave who was announced throughout the camp as
the first one to return with a deer on his back, was a man to be envied.
