The Great Sioux Nation: Sitting in Judgment on America

“If the moral issues raised by the Sioux people in the federal courtroom that cold month of December 1974 spark a recognition among the readers of a common destiny of humanity over and above the rules and regulations, the codes and statutes, and the power of the establishment to enforce its will, then the sacrifice of the Sioux people will not have been in vain.”-Vine Deloria Jr. The Great Sioux Nation: Sitting in Judgment on America is the story of the Sioux Nation’s fight to regain its land and sovereignty, highlighting the events of 1973-74, including the protest at Wounded Knee. It features pieces by some of the most prominent scholars and Indian activists of the twentieth century, including Vine Deloria Jr., Simon Ortiz, Dennis Banks, Father John Powell, Russell Means, Raymond DeMallie, and Henry Crow Dog. It also features primary documents and firsthand accounts of the activists’ work and of the trial. New to this Bison Books edition is a foreword by Philip J. Deloria and an introduction by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz. Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz is a historian and professor emerita of ethnic studies at California State University East Bay, and the author of several books, including Roots of Resistance: A History of Land Tenure in New Mexico and Indians of the Americas: Human Rights and Self-Determination. Philip J. Deloria, the son of Vine Deloria Jr., is the Carroll Smith-Rosenberg Collegiate Professor and an associate dean for undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan.