Background and Education
Deloria was the grandson of Tipi Sapa (Black Lodge), also known as Rev. Philip Joseph Deloria, an Episcopal priest and a leader of the Yankton band of the Dakota Nation. Vine, Jr. was born in Martin, South Dakota, near the Oglala Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He was first educated at reservation schools.
Deloria's parents were Barbara Sloat (née Eastburn) and Vine Victor Deloria, Sr. (1901–1990). His father studied English and Christian theology and became an Episcopal archdeacon and missionary on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, to which he transferred the family's tribal citizenship. Deloria Jr.'s aunt was the anthropologist Ella Deloria (1881–1971).
Deloria graduated from Kent School in 1951. He graduated from Iowa State University in 1958 with a degree in general science. Deloria then served in the Marines from 1954 through 1956.
Originally planning to be a minister like his father, Deloria Jr. in 1963 earned a theology degree from the Lutheran School of Theology then located in Rock Island, Illinois. In the late 1960s, he returned to graduate study and earned a law degree from the University of Colorado in 1970.
Read more about this topic: Vine Deloria, Jr.
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