Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) physician Robert H. Ruby arrived on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to oversee the health needs of the Oglala Sioux tribe during a period of significant transformation and change in federal Indian policies. As Ruby came to know the individuals living on the Pine Ridge Reservation, and as he grew more acquainted with the stories, traditions, and cultural systems of the Sioux, he was compelled to collect his observations and opinions on this tribe, considered at the time one of the most resistant to white culture and BIA “civilizing” efforts. Originally published in 1955, Ruby’s book The Oglala Sioux presents a vibrant picture of the ways in which the lives of these American Indians were altered under the influence of the U.S. government, and it details the deep and in many ways heroic struggle of the Sioux to recover and maintain their culture and sovereignty. Through Ruby’s work as a doctor on the reservation and through this compelling and informative narrative, he advocated understanding, compassion, and, in keeping with the tenor of the times in which he both lived and labored, change.

The Oglala Sioux: Warriors in Transition

History

Ruby, Robert H.

Americas

Bison Books

In 1953 young surgeon Robert H. Ruby began work as the chief medical officer at the hospital on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He began writing almost daily to his sister, describing the Oglala Lakota people he served, his Bureau of Indian Affairs colleagues, and day-to-day life on the reservation. Ruby and his wife were active in the social life of the non-white community, which allowed Ruby, also a self-trained ethnographer, to write in detail about the Oglala Lakota people and their culture, covering topics such as religion, art, traditions, and values. His frank and personal depiction of conditions he encountered on the reservation examines poverty, alcoholism, the educational system, and employment conditions and opportunities. Ruby also wrote critically of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, describing the bureaucracy that made it difficult for him to do his job and kept his hospital permanently understaffed and undersupplied. These engaging letters provide a compelling memoir of life at Pine Ridge in the mid-1950s.

A Doctor among the Oglala Sioux Tribe: The Letters of Robert H. Ruby, 1953-1954

Biographies & Memoirs

Community & Culture

University Of Nebraska Press

Book by Ruby, Robert H., Brown, John A.

The Cayuse Indians: Imperial Tribesmen of Old Oregon (Civilization of the American Indian Series, Vol. 120)

University of Oklahoma Press

Chinook Indians, Civilization of the American Indian Series

The Chinook Indians: Traders of the Lower Columbia River

Univ of Oklahoma Pr

The Spokane Indians: Children of the Rising Sun

World

Over the centuries the Indians of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and western Montana have adapted their lifeways to their regionâ€™s radically different environments-an evolution that in some tribes continues to this day, as they conform to the demands of contemporary American society.

A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest (Civilization of the American Indian)

Brown, John A.

Dreamer-Prophets of the Columbia Plateau: Smohalla and Skolaskin (Civilization of the American Indian)

Brown, John Arthur

Indian Slavery in the Pacific Northwest (NORTHWEST HISTORICAL SERIES)

Arthur H. Clark

Mylar protected dustjacket and boards have slight edgewear.

Ferryboats on the Columbia River, Including the Bridges and Dams

Superior Publishing Company

In this book, Robert H. Ruby and John A. Brown tell the story of the Cayuse people, from their early years through the nineteenth century, when the tribe was forced to move to a reservation. First published in 1972, this expanded edition is published in 2005 in commemoration of the sesquicentennial of the treaty between the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla Confederated Tribes and the U.S. government on June 9, 1855, as well as the bicentennial of Lewis and Clarkâ€™s visit to the tribal homeland in 1805 and 1806.
Volume 120 in The Civilization of the American Indian Series

The Cayuse Indians: Imperial Tribesmen of Old Oregon

Northwest Interpretive Assn

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Books by Ruby, Robert H.