Vine Deloria Jr. 1933 – 2005
Vine Deloria Jr. (1933 – 2005) was an American philosopher of the Contemporary era, associated with Postcolonial Philosophy.
Vine Deloria Jr. was a Standing Rock Sioux philosopher, theologian, and the most widely read indigenous American intellectual of the late twentieth century. Custer Died for Your Sins, his 1969 manifesto, transformed the public American conversation on indigenous policy, while God Is Red offered a sustained philosophical and theological defense of indigenous religions of place against the time-bound religions of the Christian and Western tradition. The Metaphysics of Modern Existence and his many essays on tribal sovereignty, education, and the history of indigenous-American relations have shaped a generation of indigenous American philosophy.
Key facts
- Nationality
- American
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Postcolonial Philosophy
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Vine Deloria Jr.:
“The land is not a resource; the land is a relative.”
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Attributed to Vine Deloria Jr.:
“God is red; the religions of place will outlast the religions of empire.”
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Attributed to Vine Deloria Jr.:
“Sovereignty is not a gift bestowed by another sovereign; it is the original condition of a people.”
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Attributed to Vine Deloria Jr.:
“Western thought began in fear of the wild; indigenous thought began in respect for it.”
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Attributed to Vine Deloria Jr.:
“We are not vanishing; we have always been here.”
Frequently asked about Vine Deloria Jr.
- When did Vine Deloria Jr. live?
- Vine Deloria Jr. was born in 1933 and died in 2005.
- Where was Vine Deloria Jr. from?
- Vine Deloria Jr. was an American philosopher of the Contemporary era.
- What philosophical movements is Vine Deloria Jr. associated with?
- Vine Deloria Jr. was associated with Postcolonial Philosophy.
- What was Vine Deloria Jr. known for?
- Vine Deloria Jr.
- How many quotes are attributed to Vine Deloria Jr.?
- There are 15 attributed quotations from Vine Deloria Jr. in the 1001Philosophers collection, organized by topic.
Quotes that are not actually from Vine Deloria Jr.
These lines are widely circulated as Vine Deloria Jr., but they do not appear in Vine Deloria Jr.'s works. Each entry below identifies the actual source.
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“Religion is for people who’re afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for those who’ve already been there.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Commonly attributed to Deloria on the internet, or sometimes to a few others, but without legitimate sourcing, the earliest variant of this yet located is a single quotation in Awakened India Vo. 99 (1994) p. 327, ascribed to Fr. Patrick Collins, University of Notre Dame, USA: