Being Dakota: Tales and Traditions of the Sisseton & Wahpeton [Hardcover]

Amos E. Oneroad (Author), Alanson B. Skinner (Contributor), Laura L. Anderson (Contributor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 087351453X | ISBN-13: 978-0873514538 | Publication Date: June 2003 | Edition: 1

At the beginning of the twentieth century, a few members of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota community in northeastern South Dakota worked quietly to preserve the customs and stories of their ancestors in the face of federal government suppression and the opposition of organised religion. Oneroad and Skinner collected descriptions of everyday life, including material culture, tribal organisation, and ceremonies that marked the individual's passage from birth to death. Several of the folk tales relate the exploits of Iktomi, the trickster, in rare, early, unexpurgated versions. Others tell of adventures of such figures as the Child of Love, Star Born, and the Mysterious Turtle.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This important book is a cultural gem."--Choice

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Book Description

?This important book is a cultural gem.??Choice ?A major contribution to Plains Indian Studies.??Peter Nabokov, editor of Native American Testimony ?An indigenous perspective on life that shows us a different world.??Vine Deloria, Jr., author of Custer Died for Your Sins Amos E. Oneroad moved in two worlds. Educated in traditional Dakota ways, he also earned a divinity degree from Columbia University and become a Presbyterian minister. In 1914 he began working with Alanson B. Skinner, a student of anthropology whom he met in New York City. Oneroad wrote these stories; Skinner planned to edit and publish the work. But Skinner?s untimely death in 1925 thwarted their plans, and the manuscript languished for seventy-five years in a California library. Laura L. Anderson, who teaches anthropology at the University of Oklahoma, has edited this unusual document, which offers a fresh look at what it means to be Dakota.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 260 pages
• Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press; 1 edition (June 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087351453X
• ISBN-13: 978-0873514538
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,882,352 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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