Passing of elders

Vine Deloria died this last Sunday.

Deloria was one of the most influential Indian thinkers of the 20th century. In the 60's he was executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, he was also one of the founding trustees of the National Museum of the American Indian, and had been a professor of History, Religious Studies, and Law. He authored a number of important books discussing indigenous rights and documenting some of the struggles surrounding Indian civil rights; among them Custer Died for Your Sins, God is Red, and Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties: An Indian Declaration of Independence.

There are any number of great tribal leaders, but Deloria was great in his advocacy not on behalf of one tribe or even all U.S. tribes, but indigenous people worldwide. Go read one of his books.