Vine Deloria, Jr. - Writing

Writing

In 1969, Deloria published his first of more than twenty books, entitled Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto. This book became one of Deloria's most famous works. In it, he addressed stereotypes of Indians and challenged white audiences to take a new look at the history of United States western expansionism. The book was released the year that students of the Alcatraz-Red Power Movement occupied Alcatraz Island to seek construction of an Indian cultural center, as well as attention in gaining justice on Indian issues. Other groups also gained momentum, with organizations such as the American Indian Movement staging events to gain media attention.

The book helped draw attention to the Native American struggle. Focused on the Native American goal of sovereignty without political and social assimilation, the book stood as a hallmark of Native American Self-Determination at the time. The American Anthropological Association sponsored a panel in response to Custer Died for Your Sins. The book was reissued in 2004 with a new preface by the author, noting "The Indian world has changed so substantially since the first publication of this book that some things contained in it seem new again."

Deloria wrote and edited many subsequent books and 200 articles, focusing on issues as they related to Native Americans, such as education and religion.

In 1995, Deloria argued in his book Red Earth, White Lies that the Bering land bridge never existed, and that the ancestors of the Native Americans had not migrated to the Americas over such a land bridge, as has been claimed by most archaeologists. Rather, he asserted that the Native Americans may have originated in the Americas, or reached them through transoceanic travel, as some of their creation stories suggested.

Deloria's position on the age of certain geological formations, the length of time Native Americans have been in the Americas, their possible coexistence with dinosaurs, etc. were influential in the development of American Indian Creationism, which generally rejects scientific explanations of origins of indigenous peoples in the Americas. Deloria has been criticized for his embrace of American Indian creationism, by such scholars as Bernard Ortiz de Montellano and H. David Brumble, who says such views are not supported by the scientific and physical evidence, and contribute to problems of pseudoscience. Deloria often cited Christian creationist authors in support of his views relating to science. He also relied on Hindu creationists, such as Michael Cremo.