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Ella Cara Deloria

Ella Cara Deloria (January 31, 1889 - February 12, 1971) was a Native American anthropologist. She was specialized in anthropology, ethnology, translations, linguistics, and novel writing. She was best known for recording Native American oral history and the study of Native American languages.

Early Life

Ella Deloria was born in 1889 and grew up on two reservations in South Dakota, first was the Yankton Sioux Reservation, and later moved to the Pine Ridge Reservation. Growing up, Ella’s father was a Dakota priest and her paternal grandfather was a tribal leader, which led her to receive a Euro-American education. This included her becoming fluent in both Dakota and Lakota dialects. Being integrated into both Westernized and Native cultures allowed Ella to learn the traditional ways of the Dakota Nation people.

Academic Career

She attended Oberlin College in Ohio from 1910-1913. She then received her bachelor’s degree from Columbia’s Teachers College in 1915. After graduating college, she taught at All Saints School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Anthropological Career

Her mentor was Franz Boas who she had a 15-year-long collaboration. She contributed to Boas’s success in researching and understanding Native American culture in South Dakota. She assisted him in researching and translating the stories of the Dakota Nation and the Sioux people.

Translations

A few of her most well-known translations include “Sun Dance of the Oglala Sioux” from 1929 “Dakota Texts” in 1932 “Daktoa Grammar” in 1941 And “Speaking of Indians” from 1944.

Publications

“Waterlily” 1988 (completed 1948, but published later posthumously) One of Ella’s highest achievements was her novel, which was about the daily life of a Teton Sioux woman. The novel set about to use the work Deloria had collected and described Dakota's life before it was altered by the American western expansion. She completed it in 1948, but it wasn't published until 1988.

Contribution to Anthropology

In 1927 she started a 15-year research and writing program with Boas and later Ruth Benedict at Columbia University. “She helped him research the linguistics of Native American languages, translate the recorded Indigenous languages in 19th-century texts, and provide valuable insights into the nuances of her culture.” (U.S., 2022) Ella was the first to use storytelling in anthropology. Her writing was a way for her to record oral histories and create an ethnography that is still being used by Native researchers today. Ella’s writing in the form of novels is especially influential since the reader does not have to be an anthropologist to read and understand the story. This brought information about native American culture to people outside of anthropology.

Area of Study

Her areas of interest include socio-cultural anthropology, ethnography, and translating Native American languages. She worked with the Sioux and Dakota Nations.

What Prevented Her from Fame

Unlike other minority anthropologists who Boas mentored, he left Ella Deloria in the dark possibly due to her challenging one of his colleagues, James Walker. Walker wrote and published about the Lakota people's myths, rituals, and beliefs, which, at the time, were not supported by research. Boas asked Deloria to verify Walker’s work, and by doing so she found that Walker had not separated the stories from the oral traditions. When she told Boas about this, he made her look further into the Lakota myths. As a woman of color, challenging an influential, white man who was a well-respected member of the anthropologist field, and colleague of her mentor, Deloria was left behind. Many anthropologists today, such as John Prater, believe this is a possible reason for Deloria being now well known. Being a woman in anthropology already put Ella in a position that made her be seen as less than her male counterparts during her time. Despite these challenges, she was still able to make a name for herself through her work with the Dakota and Sioux nations as well as publishing her book that created a new form of storytelling within anthropology.

References

Ella Cara Deloria, a Sioux ethnographer and linguist. AWIS. (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2022, from https://awis.org/historical-women/ella-cara-deloria/

Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Ella Cara Deloria. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved December 7, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ella-Cara-Deloria

U.S. Department of the Interior. (n.d.). Ella Cara Deloria (U.S. National Park Service). National Parks Service. Retrieved December 7, 2022, from https://www.nps.gov/people/ella-cara-deloria.htm

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