Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa) was born in 1858 of Dakota (Minnesota Sioux) parents on the Santee Reservation near Redwood Falls, Minnesota. His mother dead and his father 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 of 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.
Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains provides biographical sketches of 15 great Native American leaders, mostly Sioux, including portraits of Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Spotted Tail, and others. Eastman traces their historical importance to both white and Native peoples.
