[NYTr] Vine Deloria, Sioux Activist, Dead at 72
 
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2005 16:29:17 -0600 (CST)


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AP - Nov 14, 9:19 PM EST
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Vine Deloria, Sioux Activist, Dead at 72

By DAN ELLIOTT
Associated Press Writer

DENVER (AP) -- Vine Deloria Jr., a groundbreaking author and an
influential advocate of American Indian rights, has died, family members
said. He was 72.

Deloria, a Sioux Indian, died Sunday of complications from an aortic
aneurysm, said his son, Phil Deloria.

The author was considered one of the most outspoken - and persuasive -
proponents of Indian cultural and political identity.

His best-known book, "Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto,"
attacked the treatment of American Indians by settlers and the government.

"I think he opened Americans' eyes to the real history of Native
Americans and the injustice of past federal policies," said John
Echohawk, executive director of the Native American Rights Fund in Boulder.

"Through Vine's leadership, tribes started to stand on their treaties
and their right to self-determination," he said.

As president of the National Congress of American Indians in the 1960s,
Deloria helped forge a united, "pan-Indian approach" in dealing with the
federal government, said Patricia Limerick, faculty chair of the Center
of the American West at the University of Colorado.

"His role in getting Indian people heard in the last half of the 20th
century is unparalleled," she said. "(He was able to) get his message
into camps where it had never been heard."

Deloria was born in 1933 in Martin, S.D. He earned an undergraduate
degree from Iowa State University and a law degree from the University
of Colorado.

He taught at the University of Colorado from 1990 until he retired in 2000.

) 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
       
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