Vine Deloria Jr.

Vine Deloria Jr.
Born	Vine Victor Deloria Jr. (1933-03-26)March 26, 1933 Martin, South Dakota
Died	November 13, 2005(2005-11-13) (aged 72) Golden, Colorado
Nationality	Standing Rock Sioux, American

Vine Victor Deloria Jr. (March 26, 1933 – November 13, 2005, Standing Rock Sioux) was an author, theologian, historian, and activist for Native American rights. He was widely known for his book Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto (1969), which helped attract national attention to Native American issues in the same year as the Alcatraz-Red Power Movement. From 1964 to 1967, he served as executive director of the National Congress of American Indians,^[1] increasing its membership of tribes from 19 to 156. Beginning in 1977, he was a board member of the National Museum of the American Indian, which now has buildings in both New York City and in Washington, DC, on the Mall.

Deloria began his academic career in 1970 at Western Washington State College at Bellingham, Washington. He became Professor of Political Science at the University of Arizona (1978–1990), where he established the first master's degree program in American Indian Studies in the United States. In 1990, Deloria began teaching at the University of Colorado Boulder.^[2] In 2000, he returned to Arizona and taught at the College of Law. NBC News called Vine Deloria the "star of the American Indian renaissance."^[3]