Wigwam Evenings : Sioux Folk Tales Retold

Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman (Sioux: Ohiyesa) (1858-1939) was a Native American author, a physician and a reformer. He was active in politics and helped in finding the Boy Scouts of America. In 1899, he helped recruit students for the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. He served as a lobbyist for the Dakota between 1894 and 1897. Eastman published the autobiographical Indian Boyhood in 1902, recounting his first fifteen years of life among the Sioux during the waning years of the nineteenth century. In 1891 he married Elaine Goodale Eastman (1863-1953), an American poet. They had six children. She witnessed many monumental events in Sioux history, such as the aftermath of the Wounded Knee Massacre, which scarred her deeply. Her marriage was strained but the couple remained together for three decades. She wrote a book about her experiences as a Sioux school teacher called Sister to the Sioux. She published her last book of poems, The Voice at Eve, in 1930.