Reviewed by Jean Mendoza
Review Source: American Indians in Children’s Literature
Book Author: Diane Wilson
. . . . Author Diane Wilson (Dakota) follows Ella Deloria from her childhood on the Standing Rock reservation to the creation of a fellowship in her name at Columbia University in 2010, nearly 4 decades after her death in 1971. Wilson emphasizes Deloria’s key role in preserving traditional Dakota stories and the Dakota language, and focuses on the life experiences — including racism and poverty — that influenced her.
One fundamental influence was the way Ella’s grandparents and parents interpreted the situation that Native people found themselves in during the time Ella was a child. She was born in 1889, when Native peoples were often, essentially, prisoners on their own drastically reduced homelands. They were still targeted for assimilation or outright destruction by the settler-colonizer government that had long sought full control of the resources on the continent. Ella’s family saw advantages to being bilingual and bicultural — knowing both their Dakota traditional ways, and those of the English-speaking Christian settler-colonizer culture. Ella’s father was ordained as an Episcopal priest. Her younger brother, Vine, also became a priest (and as Wilson points out, was paid considerably less than his white counterparts). The late Dakota writer and intellectual Vine Deloria Jr. was Ella’s nephew. Continue reading on American Indians in Children’s Literature.
See reviews of the two other books in the Minnesota Native American Lives series: Peggy Flanagan and Charles Albert Bender.
Find more recommended books on this topic on our American Indians booklist.
Ella Cara Deloria by Diane Wilson
Published by Wise Ink Creative Publishing on June 21, 2021
Genres: American Indians First Nations Metis Inuit, Biography and Autobiography, Women
Pages: 58
Reading Level: Grades 6-8
ISBN: 9781634894456
Review Source: American Indians in Children's Literature
Publisher's Synopsis:
The Minnesota Humanities Center presents Minnesota Native American Lives, three stories of exceptional individuals across sports, language, and government!
Ella Cara Deloria loved to listen to her family tell stories in the Dakota language. She recorded many American Indian peoples' stories and languages and shared them with everyone. She helped protect her people's language for future generations. She also wrote stories of her own. Her story is a Minnesota Native American life.
The Minnesota Native American Lives Series includes biographies of Charles Albert Bender, Ella Cara Deloria, and Peggy Flanagan. Read all three!
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