For This Land: Writings on Religion in America

by Vine Deloria Jr.

For This Land, edited and with an introduction by James Treat, brings together over thirty years of the work of Vine Deloria, Jr., regarded as one of the most important living Native American figures. For three decades, Deloria has offered substantive and persistent contributions to understanding the complexity of religion in America. In his writings, he recognizes the spiritual desperation and religious breakdown in the contemporary situation. He provides the groundwork to get people to examine what they actually believe and how they must put those beliefs into practice. The essays in this collection express Deloria's concern for the religious dimensions and implications of human existence. His writings are engaged within a theoretical system of physical, not ideological, space, and ultimately give voice to this intellectual passion by calling into question our controversial religious institutions, commitments, worldviews, freedoms, and experiences. For This Land offers a distinctive approach to comprehending human existence from one of the leading critics of mainstream American thought.

Genres: Nonfiction, Indigenous, Spirituality, Religion, Essays

320 pages, Paperback

First published November 19, 1998

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

[T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots to disagree with from many perspectives, but fascinating insights into how Deloria was thinking about "religion" as a construct and its connections to indigenous lifeways.

[Elsie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only read "Worldviews in Collision," but it was very good. Especially the section on the possibility of an alternative concept of dignity.

[Becca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chapters 4, 5, 7, 11, 12, 14, 16, and 20 were particularly engaging.

[Allison6876 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for AMIN 3301 - many of the essays are very dated but they do start a conversation