Ella Cara Deloria
Ella Cara Deloria | |
|---|---|
| Aŋpétu Wašté Wiŋ | |
| Born | January 31, 1889 White Swan district of the Yankton Indian Reservation, South Dakota |
| Died | February 12, 1971 (aged 82) |
| Education | Educated at her father's mission school and All Saints Boarding School |
| Alma mater | Oberlin College; B.Sc., Teachers College, Columbia University, 1915 |
| Occupation(s) | Educator, anthropologist, ethnographer, linguist, and novelist |
| Known for | Recording Sioux oral history and legends; 1940 novel Waterlily; fluent in Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota dialects of Sioux, and Latin. |
| Parent(s) | Mary (Miriam) Sully Bordeaux Deloria and Philip Joseph Deloria |
| Relatives | Sister Susan Deloria; brother Vine Victor Deloria, Sr.; Nephew Vine Deloria, Jr. |
| Awards | Indian Achievement Award, 1943; Ella C. Deloria Undergraduate Research Fellowship established in her honor |
Ella Cara Deloria (January 31, 1889 – February 12, 1971), also called Aŋpétu Wašté Wiŋ ("Beautiful Day Woman"), was a Yankton Dakota educator, anthropologist, ethnographer, linguist, and novelist. She recorded Native American oral history and contributed to the study of Native American languages. According to Cotera (2008), Deloria was "a pre-eminent expert on Dakota/Lakota/Nakota cultural, religious, and linguistic practices." In the 1940s, Deloria wrote the novel Waterlily, which was published in 1988 and republished in 2009.