His literary career began with "Indian Boyhood" (1902), an autobiographical account of his traditional upbringing. Other major works include "Old Indian Days" (1907), "Wigwam Evenings" (1909, co-written with his wife Elaine Goodale), "The Soul of the Indian" (1911), "The Indian Today" (1915), "From the Deep Woods to Civilization" (1916), and "Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains" (1918). His writings remain influential in Native American literature and cultural preservation.
CHARLES A. EASTMAN
Charles Alexander Eastman (Ohiyesa, 1858–1939) was a Santee Dakota physician, author, and reformer, celebrated as one of the first Native American writers to chronicle Indigenous life from an insider's perspective. Born near Redwood Falls, Minnesota, he fled with his family to Canada after the Dakota Conflict of 1862 and was raised in traditional Dakota ways by his grandmother and uncle. At fifteen, he returned to the United States to pursue Western education, graduating from Dartmouth College and earning a medical degree from Boston University in 1890. He served as a government physician at the Pine Ridge Reservation, where he tended victims of the Wounded Knee Massacre. Eastman later devoted himself to advocating for Native American rights, helping found the Society of American Indians and contributing to the early Boy Scouts of America movement.