Dakota Texts

Ella Deloria
New introduction by Raymond J. DeMallie

280 pages

Paperback

June 2006

978-0-8032-6660-5

about author bio praise table of contents media awards

About the Book

Ella Deloria (1889–1971), one of the first Native students of linguistics and ethnography in the United States, grew up on the Standing Rock Reservation on the northern Great Plains and was trained by Franz Boas at Columbia University. Dakota Texts presents a rich array of Sioux mythology and folklore in its original language and in translation. Originally published in 1932 by the American Ethnological Society, this work is a landmark contribution to the study of the Sioux tribes.

Author Bio

Ella Deloria’s other writings include a collaboration with Franz Boas, Dakota Grammar, as well as Speaking of Indians and Waterlily (both available in Bison Books editions). Raymond J. DeMallie is a professor of anthropology at Indiana University and the editor of The Sixth Grandfather: Black Elk’s Teachings Given to John G. Neihardt (Nebraska 1984).

Praise

“Finally a volume of Dakota texts, accurately recorded, is now available. And in so far as Miss Deloria’s mother tongue is the Oglala dialect, we may be confident that stylistically and syntactically these texts are superior to those previously published.”—Language

“Deloria’s excellent collection of tales from the Teton Dakota with text, grammatical analysis, and English translation, together with notes upon customs and idioms of speech, supplies a definitive volume by a trained and competent hand upon this important and much neglected division of the Siouan stock.”—American Anthropologist