American Indian Culture and Research Journal

A Cross-Disciplinary Note on Charles Eastman (Santee Sioux) William Oandasan Bo Scholer's article "Images and Counter-Images: Ohiyesa, Standing Bear and American Literature" appeared in the American Indian Culture and Research Journal. To this article Raymond Wilson has voiced objections, including a misquote from his dissertation on Charles Eastman, a misinterpretation of a passage in Eastman's From the Deep Woods to Civilization, and errors In certain citations in Scholer's article. Indeed there are incorrectly cited passages but the responsibility for this is not so apparent, since they could be found in the author's oversight, typographical errors by his secretary or the manuscript's typographer, or the neglect of the editors, readers or proof-readers; and at a second glance the inaccuracies are not severe or misleading, though they do reduce the article's thoroughness somewhat. The objections to misinterpretation and misquotation however open the way to a brief but significant discussion on a cross-disciplinary approach to research. Wilson asserts that Scholer is in error when writing that Eastman "states that Jesus must have been an Indian" (p. 51) because he did not state this in From the Deep Woods to Civilization (p. 143); and Wilson also asserts he "never stated" in his dissertation, as Scholer II indicates," that Elaine Eastman conducted most of Eastman's writing. Wilson further elaborates: I did state that she served as his editorial assistant, a fact Ohiyesa [Eastman] recognized. The original ideas were his. Mr. Scholer makes it sound that I did not recognize this, but I certainly do. In other words, the ideas were Ohiyesa's, and his wife polished his writings for publication. Furthermore, he did not stop writing after 1921 [when the Eastmans had separated]; however, he was unable to publish anything after that date.