Overview
Of Living Stone: Perspectives on Continuous Knowledge and the Work of Vine Deloria, Jr. is a collection of new essays on the legacy of Vine Deloria, Jr., one of the most influential thinkers of our time. This insightful collection features more than thirty original pieces, bringing together Tribal leaders, artists, scientists, activists, scholars, legal experts, and humorists. A group of French scholars offers surprising perspectives on Deloria’s continuing global influence. Readers will find thoughtful and creative views on his wide-ranging and world-changing body of work. Some build upon his ideas while others offer important criticisms. In addition to its content, this volume is unique in that it was designed to center the traditional exercise of continuous knowledge whereby information is routinely shared, considered, and pragmatically adapted as it flows between generations. In this way, people, ideas and traditions remain alive and relevant—not set in stone —as the past is honored by those living in the present as they prepare for the future.
The book includes contributions from a number of remarkable individuals, including:
- Climate expert Margaret Redsteer (Crow)
- Melanie Yazzie (Diné), host of The Red Power Hour podcast
- Cheryl Crazy Bull (Sicangu Lakota), president of the American Indian College Fund
- Activists Faith Spotted Eagle (Yankton Dakota) and Lauren Schad (Cheyenne River Lakota)
- Writer and producer Migizi Pensoneau (Ponca/Ojibwe)
- Environmental scientists Kyle Whyte (Citizen Potawatomi) and Ryan Emanuel (Lumbee)
- Experts on Tribal Governance Deron Marquez (Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel), Frank Ettawageshik (Little Traverse Bay), Norbert Hill (Oneida), Megan Hill (Oneida), and Marty Case.
- Artists Cannupa Hanska Luger (MHA-Three Affiliated Tribes) and James Johnson (Tlingit)
- Legal Scholars Sarah Deer (Muscogee), Rebecca Tsosie (Yaqui descent), and Gabe Galanda (Round Valley)
- Archaeologist Paulette Steeves (Cree-Metis)
- Scholars of Indigenous Traditions Noenoe Silva (Kānaka Maoli), Natalie Avalos (Chicana of Mexican Indigenous descent), Tom Holm (Cherokee), and Greg Cajete (Tewa-Santa Clara Pueblo).
Time magazine named Vine Deloria, Jr. as one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century, and his research, writings, and teachings on history, law, religion, and science continue to influence generations of Indigenous peoples and their allies across the world. He authored many acclaimed books, including God Is Red; The Nations Within (with Clifford Lytle); Red Earth, White Lies; Spirit and Reason; and Custer Died for Your Sins.
Author Biography
David E. Wilkins (Lumbee Nation) is the E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professor in Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond Jepson School of Leadership Studies. He is also professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota where he held the McKnight Presidential Professorship in American Indian Studies with appointments in law, political science, and American studies. He earned his PhD in political science from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill in December 1990.
He is the author or editor of more than twenty books, including Indigenous Governance: Clans, Constitutions, and Consent (2024), Documents of Native American Political Development (2019), and Hollow Justice (2013). The Legal Universe (2011) and Tribes, Treaties and Constitutional Tribulations (2000) were coauthored with Vine Deloria, Jr. His articles have appeared in a range of social science, law, history, and ethnic studies journals.
Shelly Hulse Wilkins is an analyst and consultant with the Wilkins Forum, LLC. She holds an MPA with an emphasis in Tribal–state relations and has worked on issues of importance to Native governments for twenty-five years. Before convening the Wilkins Forum with her partner, David, she worked as a state legislative caucus liaison, senior analyst for the Washington State Senate, and program principal for the State-Tribal Institute at the National Conference of State Legislatures. With David Wilkins, she coauthored Dismembered: Native Disenrollment and the Battle for Human Rights (2017).
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