Charles Eastman
Native American physician and scouting pioneer (1858–1939)
Charles Alexander Eastman (born Hakadah, later named Ohíyesa, February 19, 1858 – January 8, 1939) was an American physician, writer, and social reformer. He was "one of the most prolific authors and speakers on Sioux ethnohistory and American Indian affairs" in the early 20th century.
Eastman was of Santee Dakota, English and French ancestry. After working as a physician on reservations in South Dakota, he became increasingly active in politics and issues on Native American rights. He worked to improve the lives of youths: he founded thirty-two Native American chapters of the YMCA and helped to found the Boy Scouts of America. He was an early Native American historian.
Early life and education
Eastman was named Hakadah at his birth in Minnesota; his name meant "pitiful last" in Dakota. Eastman was so named because his mother died following his birth. He was the last of five children of Wakantakawin, a mixed-race woman also known as Winona (meaning "First-Born Daughter" in the Dakota language), or Mary Nancy Eastman. She and Eastman's father, a Santee Dakota named Wak-anhdi Ota (Many Lightnings), lived on a Santee Dakota reservation near Redwood Falls, Minnesota.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q582476. VIAF identifies the subject as 51660810. The Library of Congress control number is n79119416. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1858 and 1939.
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This entry incorporates text from “Charles Eastman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.