Indian Boyhood

Indian Boyhood is Charles A. Eastman's autobiographical account of his childhood among the Santee Dakota, written by one of the most important Native American authors of the early twentieth century. Born Ohiyesa, Eastman recounts the world of his early years through family, play, training, hunting, story, ceremony, discipline, kinship, and the formation of character. The book is not merely a childhood memoir; it is also a record of Dakota life, values, education, and community before Eastman's later education in Euro-American schools and his public career as a physician, reformer, and writer.

First published in 1902, Indian Boyhood remains a significant work of Native American autobiography, classic children's nonfiction, and American life writing. Eastman writes with clarity and restraint, presenting childhood as a moral and cultural education shaped by elders, nature, responsibility, courage, and communal obligation. For readers interested in Native American history, Dakota and Sioux culture, American autobiography, Indigenous life writing, and classic juvenile nonfiction, this book offers an important first-person account from an author whose work helped bring Native perspectives into American literary and historical consciousness.