
A Doctor among the Oglala Sioux Tribe
The Letters of Robert H. Ruby, 1953-1954
- 448 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
A Doctor among the Oglala Sioux Tribe
The Letters of Robert H. Ruby, 1953-1954
About this book
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.
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Information
Table of contents
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Maps
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The Deadliest War
- Timeline of Selected Events in the Life of Robert H. Ruby, MD
- Editors’ Comment on Editorial Methodology
- One. August 1953
- Two. September 1953
- Three. October 1953
- Four. November 1953
- Five. December 1953
- Six. January 1954
- Seven. February 1954
- Eight. March 1954
- Nine. April 1954
- Ten. May 1954
- Eleven. June 1954
- Twelve. July 1954
- Thirteen. August 1954
- Fourteen. September 1954
- Fifteen. October 1954
- Sixteen. November 1954
- Seventeen. December 1954
- Editors’ Postscript
- Appendix
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index