Dahcotah: Life and Legends of the Sioux

by Mary H. Eastman

Mary Eastman was the daughter of an army officer and the wife of another, the artist Seth Eastman. She traveled with her husband from the Seminoles of Florida to the Sioux of Fort Snelling, and it was during her seven years at the post in Minnesota Territory that the material for this book was gathered. The lore and legend of the Sioux Indians are dimmed by the curtain of reservation life, and the passing of more than one hundred years has modernized the primitive flavor of many of their tales. In this volume, Sioux customs and manners are presented in authentic detail by a writer who had the advantage of studying their culture before it became too mingled with the ways of the white man. First published in 1849, this lovely book recounts many of her experiences and observations, and is beautifully illustrated by her husband. This book offers a wealth of information on the Sioux Indian in western Minnesota, and of special interest are the author's descriptions of Sioux rituals, dances, and child raising practices. Although Mrs. Eastman dwells on Sioux superstitions, she includes much invaluable linguistic information in her account.

Genres: History

292 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Mary Henderson Eastman was an American novelist.

She is mostly known for recording Native American life with her husband.

In 1852 she wrote the bestselling novel "Aunt Phillis Cabin" which was an pro-slavery answer to "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

Reviews

[Johnny Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Book

This book tells many story's and accounts of the Indian way of life and the things they had to endure to survive. It also talks about the belief s and traditions of the tribes back in the earlier years. Its quite amazing to know that this stuff happened in America. The author gives very good descriptions of all the situations explained in this book too, so well you feel like your there.

[Lewis Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting.

[Blake · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mary Eastman approaches the world of the Dakotas with a saccharine and condescending sympathy coupled with a sincere and oft-repeated desire to see them all converted to Christianity.

This pseudo-history would have benefitted from either being distilled into the facts that it's own stated goal was to represent, or to have been entirely fictionalized into short stories that merely take place within Dakota society, rather than keeping a foot in each camp.

I preferred the non-narrative sections to all everyday "legends" provided about the lives lead by Dakota people, dramatized in proto-soap opera fashion as they were, but nonetheless was as excited to learn about their mythology and religious observances as I was to have confirmed my previous knowledge of their brutality in combat, privations in the course of normal life, and victimhood at the hands of the twin invasive authorities of the insidious fur trade and stoical US garrison, all as seen from a partial outsider squirming in her seat as she tries very hard to withhold the judgment you can tell she feels entirely for the natives, as it more than occasionally leaks onto the page...which is to say, it's always a lot more fun to read 19th Century nonfiction authors in a meta frame of mind, remaining ever conscious of the context and the era's influence on the author, with at least one degree of emotional detachment from what's being implied in the text.

The primary redemption of this book, in my mind, came after I had already finished it. Very soon afterwards I read the autobiography of one Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro, the Indian Agent at Fort Snelling during the period that Mary Eastman was there, and he much more directly, and with greater detail, confirms several of the stories rendered anonymous and less-than-credible-sounding by Eastman's chosen style. So all was not for naught: I learned intimately how a female inmate of Fort Snelling felt about actual events that took place on the upper Mississippi in the 1840s, and for that I am thankful, however sad the reality represented was.

[Kaye Salter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised by this read. Obviously, dated by today's standers and I would never refer to it as a "must read", that is unless you are really big into Minnesota history, and then only after you've read a handful of other texts by Dakota authors. But pretty well written and she clearly meant well.