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📘 Eastman's portraits of the chiefs

You open a 1918 book from Little, Brown in Boston. The title page names Charles A. Eastman, and then, in parentheses, Ohiyesa. Fifteen chapter titles follow: Red Cloud. Spotted Tail. Little Crow. Crazy Horse. Sitting Bull. Chief Joseph. Thi

4
lessons
~20 min
to learn
Adults
level
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What you’ll learn

  1. The writer in the doorwayPlace Eastman as a Dakota writer with a Boston audience, and name the path from Hakadah to the 1890 Pine Ridge physician.The 1918 title page names Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa). MNopedia and NLM give the life: 1858, Canada after 1862, Dartmouth 1887, Boston University 1890, Wounded Knee.
  2. Biography, not a catalogState Eastman's program: fifteen lives, tardy justice, and the claim that some public chiefs were not chiefs by tribal usage.The contents page is fifteen persons. Eastman writes from talk as well as print. A life can ask who recognized a leader. A catalog of tribes cannot.
  3. A few of the livesRead three portraits for the habit they share: a person first, then the public war, with Eastman's own family inside Little Crow.Red Cloud gets a childhood. Little Crow is Taoyateduta, and Many Lightnings walks into the 1862 council. Sitting Bull is written against a cliché. Joseph and Hole-in-the-Day keep the book from being only Sioux.
  4. How to read him nowRead 1918 wording historically, catch Eastman's own contradiction on Sitting Bull, and go notice who still gets to be a person on a history page.The justice work uses period words. Two chapters disagree about 1868. The Little Crow 'today' was already a museum sentence, later undone. Tonight, look who is scenery.

Questions this course answers

What does Eastman's biographical form insist on, in the opening of Indian Heroes?

Eastman says famous names are unknown because misunderstood, and he wants to present chiefs in the light of native character and ideals. The form is a stack of lives, not a census of tribes.

Match the name Eastman uses to the job it marks

MNopedia and Eastman both treat names as history. Hakadah, Ohiyesa, and Charles are one life. Taoyateduta is the name Eastman restores under the English Little Crow.

Put Eastman's own path in the order the records support

MNopedia: birth 1858, Canada after 1862, father returns 1873, medical degree 1890, Pine Ridge that November. NLM confirms the Boston University degree and Wounded Knee.

How many chapter-lives does the 1918 contents page hold?

The contents page lists fifteen names, from Red Cloud to Hole-in-the-Day. Eastman's 'more than sixty tribes' is a different claim, about the continent, not about this book.

In your own words, why does Eastman think a life story can do a job that a catalog of tribes cannot?

Eastman's opening and his aside about paper chiefs both say the same thing: the American public already has names, and still does not have persons.

When two chapters disagree about Sitting Bull and the 1868 treaty, what is the honest move?

The Spotted Tail chapter says Sitting Bull did not come to the 1868 council. The Sitting Bull chapter sends him to Washington soon after. Both cannot be a clean fact. Eastman remains strong on voice, interviews, and argument.

Grounded in trusted sources

  • Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa), Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains, Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1918. Fifteen chapter lives from Red Cloud to Hole-in-the-Day; opening claim that names live in history yet are unknown because misunderstood, and that Americans will do tardy justice; 'the Sioux nation, to which I belong'; the aside that many public 'chiefs' were not chiefs by tribal usage; Red Cloud interviews ('he told me,' 'I once asked Red Cloud'); Little Crow as Taoyateduta and Many Lightnings in the 1862 council; Sitting Bull as more than a 'bloodthirsty savage,' met in 1884. Project Gutenberg ebook 336, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/336
  • Molly Huber, Eastman, Charles Alexander (Ohiyesa), (1858–1939), MNopedia, Minnesota Historical Society, first published 6 June 2011, last modified 18 September 2025. Birth 19 February 1858 near Redwood Falls; Hakadah and Ohiyesa; Canada after the U.S.–Dakota War; father returns 1873; Santee, Beloit, Dartmouth; medical degree 1890; Pine Ridge and Wounded Knee; Elaine Goodale as editor; Indian Heroes listed as Little, Brown, 1918. https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/person/eastman-charles-alexander-ohiyesa-1858-1939
  • Minnesota Historical Society, Ohiyesa (Charles Eastman), The U.S.–Dakota War of 1862. Same core chronology; Pine Ridge physician treating survivors after 29 December 1890; confidence in white culture shaken. https://www.mnhs.org/usdakotawar/stories/history/ohiyesa-charles-eastman
  • National Library of Medicine, Charles Alexander Eastman (1858–1939), Native American M.D., Author, in If You Knew the Conditions… Health Care to Native Americans. Medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine, 1890; Pine Ridge Agency physician; eyewitness to events around Wounded Knee, 29 December 1890. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/if_you_knew/ifyouknew_11.html
  • Dartmouth Libraries Archives & Manuscripts, Eastman, Charles Alexander, 1858–1939. Dartmouth College Class of 1887; then Boston University and a medical career; Pine Ridge and Crow Creek; cared for people after Wounded Knee; Charles Eastman papers, MS-829. https://archives-manuscripts.dartmouth.edu/agents/people/1900
  • Minnesota Historical Society, Frequently Asked Questions, The U.S.–Dakota War of 1862, item 17. Little Crow's remains displayed at the State Capitol; removed from display in 1915 at Jesse Wakeman's request; returned to the family in 1971. Corrects Eastman's 1918 line that the arm and scalp 'may be seen to-day' at the Society. https://www.mnhs.org/usdakotawar/frequently-asked-questions

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