Indian Heros and Great Chieftains

Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa) was born in 1858 of Dakota (Minnesota Sioux) parents on the Santee Reservation near Redwood Falls, Minnesota.  After his mother died and his father was captured during the “Minnesota Sioux Uprising”, his grandparents raised Eastman.  His father found him when Charles was 15 years old and he began school.  Graduating from Dartmouth in 1887 he continued on and got his MD from Boston University. 

After graduating he got a job at the Pine Ridge Agency treating the injuries sustained by the survivors of the Wounded Knee Massacre.  He spent the rest of his life helping Indian people cope with the changes to their world and trying to reconcile the opposing values and beliefs of white society and Sioux culture.