Reflection on Custer Died for Your Sins by Vine DeLoria, Jr.

This is not like the history books I usually read. Custer Died for Your Sins is a book really of its time, which is late 60’s America and is an effort by a major Indian leader, the Director of the National Council of American Indians (NCAI) to chart the future of the movement for Indian rights. I really liked the way it was written because it was sarcastic and had a lot of personality. There’s even a whole chapter titled “Indian Humor.” It is a little dated but holds up well and isn’t too long, under 300 pages. I’m just gonna put some passages here because I liked them. This post is just not gonna be organized really.

“There are a number of white organizations that attempt to help Indian people. Since we would be better off without them I will not mention them, except to comment that they do exist.”

“People often feel guilty about their ancestors killing all those Indians years ago. But they shouldn’t feel guilty about the distant past. Just the last two decades have seen a more devious but hardly less successful war waged against Indian communities.” (In reference to “termination” pursued by the federal government in the 1950’s and 60’s.”

“Indians are equally certain that Columbus brought anthropologists on his ships when he came to the new world. How else could he have made so many wrong deductions about where he was?
               While their historical precedent is uncertain, anthropologists can readily be identified on the reservations, Go into any crowd of people. Pick out a tall gaunt white man wearing Bermuda shorts, a World War II Army Air Force flying jacket, an Australian bush hat, tennis shoes, and packing a large knapsack incorrectly strapped on his back. He will invariably have a thin sexy wife with stringy hair, and IQ of 191, and a vocabulary in which even the prepositions have eleven syllables.”

“The current joke is that a survey was taken and only 15 percent of the Indians thought that the United States should get out of Vietnam. Eighty-five percent thought they should get out of America!”

DeLoria Jr. also talks a lot about the differences between blacks and Indians, often in relation to the Civil Rights Movement, which was active, as he was writing less than a year after King was assassinated. He talks about how whites view blacks as pack animals and Indians as wild animals. He excluded the blacks from the economy, politics and society, not allowing them to rise from their position. With the Indians it was the reverse, forcing them to become white through Christianity and European customs.

Miscellaneous Facts

• Scalping was introduced to the Americas by the English in the French and Indian War.
• One of the biggest tribal issues of the time was fishing and hunting rights. White sportsmen would hunt and fish for trophies, diminishing stocks that Indians depended on for food and life.
• Harry Truman appointed as the Commissioner of Indian Affairs Dillon Myer, who began the termination program in 1950. He had been in charge of Japanese internment camps during World War II and was selected for his experience with minority groups.
• Indian tribes can sue the government and win damages, but the government would still decide through legislation how to spend it.
• Tribal termination was some really horrible stuff. When Congress would want to terminate a tribe, they would have the tribe hold a referendum to approve it. This did not require any number of members to participate, so a majority could be formed of 50 from a tribe of 5,000. After the referendum, the land would be appraised and sold, so that the Indians would vote on selling before they knew the price because Congress is presumed to act in good faith towards the Indians.
• Most tribal names mean the People, First Men, or Original People.