Rev. Vine Deloria

brief biography

Vine Deloria Senior (1901 – 1990)

Vine Senior was the last child of Philip J. Deloria’s third marriage. His older sisters were Ella and Susan. Ella, a gifted linguist and ethnographer, later worked with the anthropologist Franz Boas. After his mother’s Mary death in 1916, he was sent to a military boarding school, which was run by Episcopalians.

In the mid-1920ies he played Football for the St. Stephens College. Vine, whose Dakota name Ohiya meant “Winner”, was raised to a skilled athlete, a football player never avoiding a competition. In 1925 “Pete” as he was called by his classmates, was elected captain of his football team. And Football took him to New York, where he studied Episcopal Church Theology and met his fate. In spring 1931 Ella Deloria introduced Barbara Eastburn to her brother Vine. She was a somehow WASP, working for American Telegraph & Telephone (AT&T). And she was an offspring of an open minded family of Dutch heritage.

Within six weeks, he married Barbara Eastburn (1908 - ?) of New York and in May 1932 the newly wed returned to South Dakota. In October 1932 the couple moved to Martin on the Rosebud Reservation, where Vine for 15 years was responsible for the community of the All Saints Church.

In the 1950s Vine Sr. was a close friend of Felix Renville, Sr. when he was an Episcopal minister serving on the Lake Traverse Reservation in northeast South Dakota. It is said that both of these elders were marvelous story tellers - men who spoke with verve and power, emphatic gesture and subtle modulation - in the tradition of Dakota orators.

Vine Deloria Sr. died on Feb. 26. 1990 at a nursing home in Tucson, Ariz. He was 88 years old.

Read more: http://amertribes.proboards.com/thread/1975/delorias#ixzz4EhT9qvz1

• Residence: 1940 - Martin, Bennett, South Dakota, USA
• Race: I
  • Reference: 1940 United States Federal Census - SmartCopy: Jul 17 2016, 7:12:09 UTC
• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Jul 17 2016, 7:58:08 UTC
• https://www.rikkyo.ac.jp/research/laboratory/IAS/ras/32/deloria.pdf
• People of Tipi Sapa (the Dakotas): Tipi Sapa Mitaoyate Kin By Sarah Emilia Olden