The books I have reviewed and recommended on my blog in the past have all been books that have been published recently. And the next book I plan to review is also less than six years old. So why for this piece am I discussing a book that was first released more than a century ago? Hopefully, in my own small and inconsequential way I wanted to draw more attention to what I think is an important and overlooked book that more Americans absolutely need to read. In fact, much of this piece will be lengthy quotations from the book, to hopefully let the book’s merits speak for itself. And I hope that the readers will reflect on and imbibe the wisdom that Eastman offers us.
To give a very brief summary of the author; Charles Alexander Eastman (also known as Hakadah or Ohiye S’a) was a Santee Dakota born in 1858 and who lived until 1939. He was a doctor, writer, and social reformer. His first book, Indian Boyhood, was published in 1902, recounting his early life among the Dakota Sioux. According to my edition of From the Deep Woods, it was published in 1916 and to quote the foreword to the book: “…the story has now been carried on from that point of the plunge into the unknown with which the first book ends.”
From the Deep Woods recounts the author’s life from his early years among the Dakota Sioux, through his early education both in the Midwest and college in the eastern US and his embrace of Christianity, onward through his career as a doctor on different reservations. As the book progresses Eastman also recounts his spiritual and intellectual journey, and how he comes to question just how Christian of a nation the United States really is. There are certainly events both big and small in Eastman’s life that could change his perspective. For example, he was on a reservation very near to the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre and treated many of the injured victims.
I first heard of Eastman and this book when I was watching The Great Courses lecture series called Native Peoples of North America (which I also recommend). I greatly appreciated the series for presenting the history of North America in a new perspective, one that emphasized Native Americans’ agency, adaptability, and resilience. The series also gave me a greater appreciation of Native American contributions to American culture. Even better, the series introduced me to Charles Eastman and his writing.
So why do I recommend this book, and why do I think more Americans should read it? Because I find it depressing. This sounds like a counter intuitive reason to endorse something, but let me explain. The more I study history, especially modern and early modern history, the more I find people who make poignant and cutting critiques of the world in which they lived. And most of the time, I find that these people’s wise counsel was ignored. The same can be said for From the Deep Woods. This book was published more than a century ago, but if it had been published yesterday it would still be just as relevant now as it was in 1916. While I find this book depressing in a strange yet inscrutably harmonious way I also find it uplifting. It gladdens me to see that there are people who can take a step back from the cultural milieu they are engrossed in and make an objective assessment of what they see. If others can do so hopefully in my own way I can do the same. And maybe the reader can as well after they read a few passages of From the Deep Woods.
A quick note, unless I specify otherwise, any italics you see in the quotes below are my own emphasis.
-This first quote is Eastman recounting an exchange he had with an instructor during a summer while he was in college in Massachusetts. I don’t know if other readers will find it as amusing as I do but I laugh every time I read it.
“One morning as we walked together, we came to a stone at the roadside. “Eastman,” said he, “this stone is a reminder of the cruelty of your countrymen two centuries ago. Here they murdered an innocent Christian.”
“Mr. Moody,” I replied, “it might have been better if they had killed them all. Then you would not have had to work so hard to save the souls of their descendants.”
-Below is the first paragraph of the chapter titled “The Ghost Dance War” about different Native American spiritual movements at the beginning and end of the 19th century. I’m by no means an expert on this topic or period so I don’t know if scholars would agree with Eastman’s assessment. But nonetheless I think it’s an interesting idea.
“A religious craze such as that of 1890-91 was a thing foreign to the Indian philosophy. I recalled that a hundred years before, on the overthrow of the Algonquin nations, a somewhat similar faith was evolved by the astute Delaware prophet, brother to Tecumseh. It meant that the last hope of race entity had departed, and my people were groping blindly after spiritual relief in their bewilderment and misery. I believe that the first prophets of the “Red Christ” were innocent enough and that the people were generally sincere, but there were doubtless some who went into it for self-advertisement, and who introduced new and fantastic features to attract the crowd.”
-The next quote is from the chapter “War with the Politicians.” In the paragraphs before this quote Eastman is describing corruption on the Pine Ridge Reservation and his initial disbelief at what was being done to rob or mislead the Indians who lived there.
“To me these stories were unbelievable, from the point of view of common decency. I held that a great government such as ours would never condone or permit any such practices, while administering large trust funds and standing in relation of guardian to a race made helpless by lack of education and of legal safeguards. At that time, I had not dreamed what American politics really is…”
-This next quote I first heard watching The Great Courses lecture series I mentioned above. I have never forgotten a phrase that Eastman used and as soon as I heard it I knew I had to read the rest of this book, a decision I did not regret.
“I seriously considered the racial attitude toward God, and almost unconsciously reopened the book of my early religious training, asking myself how it was that our simple lives were so imbued with worship, while much church-going among white and nominally Christian Indians led often to such small results.”
“A new point of view came to me then and there. This latter was a machine-made religion. It was supported by money, and more money could only be asked for on the showing made; therefore too many of the workers were after the quantity rather than the quality of religious experience.”
-Eastman spent much of his time proselytizing the Christian faith during his travels to different reservations, but he quotes several people during the book that pointed to the obvious gaps between Christian faith in theory and how Christian faith is expressed in reality. Here is one such example of someone speaking to Eastman as he was explaining the tenets of Christianity.
“I remember one old battle-scared warrior who sat among the young men got up and said in substance: “Why, we have followed this law you speak of for untold ages! We owned nothing, because everything is from Him. Food was free, land was free as sunshine and rain. Who has changed all this? The white man; and yet he says he is a believer in God! He does not seem to inherit any of the traits of his Father, nor does he follow the example set by his brother Christ.”
-This next excerpt is Eastman once again quoting someone else. It’s a short quote but crucially important in early 21st century America when we are tottering on the edge of “Christian” Nationalists dominating our governmental system, and proves my point that From the Deep Woods continues to be relevant.
“Then American Horse spoke up.” “The missionaries tell us a man cannot have two masters; then how can he be a religious man and a politician at the same time?”
-This last section I’m quoting at length and it’s the last couple pages of the book. Obviously it’s a long quote but as a way to end a book I think it is an absolute slam dunk. Quick note: the words might and right in this section are italicized in the original.
“From the time I first accepted the Christ ideal it has grown on me steadily, but I also see more and more plainly our modern divergence from that ideal. I confess I have wondered much that Christianity is not practiced by the very people who vouch for that wonderful conception of exemplary living. It appears that they are anxious to pass on their religion to all races of men, but keep very little of it themselves. I have not yet seen the meek inherit the earth, or the peacemakers receive high honor.”
“Why do we find so much evil and wickedness practiced by the nations composed of professedly “Christian” individuals? The pages of history are full of licensed murder and the plundering of weaker and less developed peoples, and obviously the world today has not outgrown this system. Behind the material and intellectual splendor of civilization, primitive savagery and cruelty and lust hold sway, undiminished, and as it seems, unheeded. When I let go of my simple, instinctive nature religion, I hoped to gain something far loftier as well as more satisfying to the reason. Alas! It is also more confusing and contradictory. The higher and spiritual life, though first in theory, is clearly secondary, if not entirely neglected, in actual practice. When I reduce civilization to its lowest terms, it becomes a system of life based on trade. The dollar is the measure of value, and might still spells right; otherwise, why war?”
“Yet even in deep jungles God’s own sunlight penetrates, and I stand before my own people still as an advocate for civilization. Why? First, because there is no chance for our former simple life anymore; and second, because I realize the white man’s religion is not responsible for his mistakes. There is every evidence that God has given him all the light necessary by which to live in peace and good-will with his brother; and we also know that many brilliant civilizations have collapsed in physical and moral decadence. It is for us to avoid their fate if we can.”
“Because there is no chance for our former simple life anymore.” There is so much in the last couple of pages of Eastman’s book that is brilliant. However, this is the part I find myself thinking the most about. I wonder how Eastman felt when he said that there was no going back to their simple lives anymore. Was it a forlorn longing for something that is forever out of reach? Was it a grim acceptance of reality? Was it a hopefulness that a better world might yet be built? Was it all of these things, or none of them? I find myself wishing I could ask.
Two predominating myths have colored how other Americans view Native American societies for the past couple of centuries. One has been extremely negative and the other extremely positive. Neither of those extremes is true, and extremes rarely resemble the truth. People like overly negative or positive portrayals of something because it makes life simple. It reduces people and events to one dimensional caricatures. Native Americans were not and are not some trope for savagery or for a lost Utopian society either. They were people, with their own complex societies of languages, cultures, religions, systems of trade, modes of warfare, and family and community dynamics.
In my view, every society has its own good and bad aspects and we could all benefit by trying to adopt or adapt the good from other societies into our own, while dispensing with the bad. That sounds simple in theory, but the devil is in the details and everyone will have a different idea of what is good and bad. For example, what I consider to be the best aspects of many Native American cultures, many of which Eastman points out in his writing, is a respect for nature and a more egalitarian community that does not glorify materialism and property.
Also, I always think it is wise to engage with people from other cultural backgrounds. Not only do they provide a fresh perspective, they can point out problems within your culture that might be blindingly obvious to them, that are not clear to you. That’s the thing about cultural rules and norms that we often forget. They are arbitrary, made up, based only on popular consensus. They absolutely can and should change over time, especially to correct flaws and injustices. However, to correct a flaw, the first step is to recognize and point out that flaw, and that’s why books such as From the Deep Woods are so important.
From the Deep Woods to Civilization is an underappreciated book that, unfortunately, is still just as relevant as when it was first written and published. I hope you found the quoted passages above enlightening. If you did, I encourage you to read the rest of the book, and to recommend it to friends and family for them to read as well. As usual I will post some links for the book if you want to purchase it, and I will link The Great Courses series I mentioned a couple of times as well.
Links for: From the Deep Woods to Civilization
https://bookshop.org/p/books/from-the-deep-woods-to-civilization-eastman/575283?ean=9780486430881
Link for: The Great Courses: Native Peoples of North America
https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/native-peoples-of-north-america
Quick Note: If you see the series at full price, yes it is way too expensive, probably hundreds of dollars. However, The Great Courses is always running some kind of sale and they always knock down the price to around 50-70 dollars. So I, like everyone else probably, just wait until the series I want is on sale, and if interested I would recommend you do the same.