Custer Died For Your Sins

by Vine Deloria Jr.

Kindle Edition

Published February 20, 2018

About the author

Vine Victor Deloria, Jr. was an American Indian author, theologian, historian, and activist. He was widely known for his book Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto (1969), which helped generate national attention to Native American issues in the same year as the Alcatraz-Red Power Movement. From 1964–1967, he had served as executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, increasing tribal membership from 19 to 156. Beginning in 1977, he was a board member of the National Museum of the American Indian, which now has buildings in both New York City and Washington, DC.

Deloria began his academic career in 1970 at Western Washington State College at Bellingham, Washington. He became Professor of Political Science at the University of Arizona (1978–1990), where he established the first master's degree program in American Indian Studies in the United States. After ten years at the University of Colorado, Boulder, he returned to Arizona and taught at the School of Law.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this book was written in the 1960s, the content (unfortunately) feels fresh, and I have it from knowledgeable sources that while there have been some positive changes, there haven't been many. The writing is engaging and I learned a lot that I didn't know. Mr. Deloria's take on ancient history is different than the commonly understood versions, and it's quite intriguing, although I do feel his world view ignores some facts that don't match his perspective (but most histories do that.) This book leads me to ponder some intertwining topics - what is race exactly? how do culture and race interrelate? If land is directly tied to to culture and race, as the author believed, what happens when so many people disconnect themselves from "their land"?

[Steve Krizman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I re-read this recently and think that its messages still hold up today. There are so many more histories written from the Indigenous perspective today. I recommend this book to anyone following this trail.