Anthropologist Profile: Ella Cara Deloria, Educator, Ethnographer, and Linguistic Anthropologist

 

Ella Cara Deloria

Not every scholar or researcher comes from a privileged background and has an easy time pursuing their studies or career.  These individuals often face unseen challenges that make it difficult to be as successful as others, which makes their accomplishments all the more special and important.  Today’s blog post will address the achievements of Ella Cara Deloria, a Dakota educator and scholar, who faced several serious hardships but is considered one of the most successful anthropological scholars to date.

 

Ella Cara Deloria was born on January 31, 1889 to a Euro-American mother and a Yankton Sioux father, who was also an Episcopal priest. Her paternal grandfather was a tribal leader.  She grew up with modest means, but her family instilled in her the importance of education and maintaining her Indigenous way of life.  She was taught both the Dakota and Lakota languages, maintaining fluency in both her entire life.  In 1910 she began her studies at Oberlin College, which she completed in 1913.  She immediately followed this up by earning her Bachelor’s of Science in Education at Columbia Teachers College, earning her degree in 1915. 

 

It was during her tenure at Columbia that she met Franz Boas, who is considered the father of modern anthropology.  She was impressed with the anthropological subject matter he was teaching his students, and he saw in Deloria an individual he could employ to help educate his students.  Given her interests in education Deloria jumped at the chance to teach Boas’s students Dakota and Lakota.  Upon graduating from Columbia she became a teacher.  She first taught language arts, followed by health education and later dance and physical education in various Indigenous school districts.  She was a celebrated educator, but she could not help but notice the challenges her students faced.  She documented these and advocated on behalf of her students, setting the foundations for what is today known as culturally relevant teaching practices.

 

In 1927 she reunited with Boas and began a 15 year career as an ethnographer and anthropological linguistics scholar.  These studies were first undertaken under the guidance of Boas but later by Ruth Benedict.  With Boas they studied American Indian languages and cultures, with Deloria serving as an instrumental cultural informant for Boas.  She also forayed into her own independent work.  She interviewed elders, composed several Indigenous language dictionaries and grammar books, and translated ceremonial texts.  This resulted in a series of publications, including “The Sun Dance of the Oglala Sioux,” in the Journal of American Folklore in 1929, the Dakota Texts (1932), Speaking of Indians (1944), and Waterlilly, which was published after her death in 1988.  Her book Dakota Way of Life won the 2023 Dwight L. Smith (ABC-CLIO) Award and a bronze medal for the 2023 Will Rogers Medallion Award, both of which were awarded posthumously.

 

In addition to her own research she was employed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs for two projects.  One involved studying and reporting on the socioeconomic challenges of the residents of the Navajo Nation Reservation.  Her work with the Navajo garners far more attention than her work with the Lumbee of North Carolina, which was also commissioned by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.  For this project she was commissioned to write a pageant that chronicled the Lumbee’s successes over their history.  The purpose of this pageant was to combat the racial and ethnic prejudices the Lumbee faced by the neighboring White population.  Deloria knew nothing about the Lumbee, but she did not let that stop her from completing the work.  She started by reviewing the published literature on the Lumbee, which she quickly realized was largely incomplete and negatively biased.  She drew upon ethnographic methods, including participant observation and interviews, to learn more about the Lumbee.  This concluded in the composition of a pageant that highlighted the Lumbee’s cultural values, beliefs, and traditions.  The pageant employed only Lumbee actors and was a huge success.  The two day run was consistently sold out and drew audiences from across the United States who came to North Carolina to see the show.  The Lumbee were so impressed with her work that they requested she return the next year to help them put the play on again.  She did so without pay and while pausing her own research on the Dakota.

 

It is important to state that despite Deloria’s academic successes she found very little financial support or success. She was financially supported by her brother and father during the early parts of her career, but during the Great Depression she became the sole financial support for her family.  She had so little money that she lived out of her car for several years.  Despite this she continued to work and advocate tirelessly for American Indians, both in education and anthropological studies until her death in 1971. 

 

Her work in language preservation has set the foundational standards for how that work continues to this day.  As well, her advocacy in education and American Indian history and culture also set the standards for how those activities should be completed today.  Deloria was a trailblazer within the field of anthropology and a cherished advocate for American Indians.

 

Works Cited

Aktá Lakota Museum. "Ella Cara Deloria." 2026. Aktá Lakota Museum & Cultural Center. Electronic. 13 May 2026.

Bakken, Gordon Morris. "Ella Cara Deloria." n.d. Brittanica . Electronic. 13 May 2026.

Gardner, Sherri. "Meet the TC Alum Who Set the Standard for Indigenous Cultural Preservation." 25 June 2025. Teachers College, Columbia University. Electronic. 13 May 2026.

Locklear, Jessica. "“The Life Story of a People:” Ella Cara Deloria and the Lumbee ." 17 March 2025. The American Philosophical Society. Electronic. 13 May 2026.