"Indian for a while": Charles Eastman's 'Indian Boyhood' and the discourse of allotment.(Critical Essay) From: The American Indian Quarterly | Date: September 22, 2001| Author: Carlson, David J. | COPYRIGHT 2001 University of Nebraska Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

What boy would not be an Indian for a while when he thinks of the freest life in the world?

Charles Alexander Eastman, Indian Boyhood

In 1893 when Charles Eastman began working on the sketches that would eventually become his first autobiography, Indian Boyhood, he had just moved his family from the Pine Ridge Reservation (where he was employed as the agency physician) to St. Paul MN. (1) The relocation was not wholly voluntary. Conflicts earlier that year wit...