[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 4 (Monday, January 24, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S140-S141]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     HONORING DR. VINE DELORIA, JR.

 Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, it is with great honor that I 
publicly commend Dr. Vine Deloria, Jr., for receiving the American 
Indian Visionary Award.
  Dr. Deloria, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, is a 
distinguished Native American scholar whose research, writings, and 
teaching span history, law, religion, and politics. This award, given 
by the Native American publication, Indian Country Today, honors those 
who display ``the highest qualities and attributes of leadership in 
defending the foundations of American Indian freedom.'' This is an 
honor Dr. Deloria richly deserves.
  Born in 1933 in Martin, SD., Dr. Deloria has been at the forefront of 
American Indian activism since the 1960s. As executive director of the 
National Congress of American Indians from 1964 to 1967, Dr. Deloria 
frequently worked with leaders whose experience dated back to the 
Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Consequently, Dr. Deloria attributes 
his involvement

[[Page S141]]

in the Indian movement to working with those influential people, as 
they encouraged a new breed of activists.
  For the past 4 decades, Dr. Deloria has been a voice of influence in 
Indian history, writing more than twenty books and countless articles 
and lectures. His works stimulated political thinking and discourse 
among Indian activists. As Wilma Mankiller, former Principal Chief of 
the Cherokee Nation, said of Dr. Deloria, ``No writer has more clearly 
articulated the unspoken emotions, dreams and lifeways of contemporary 
Native people.''
  Now a retired professor of political science from the University of 
Arizona and retired professor emeritus from the University of Colorado, 
Dr. Deloria is still writing and inspiring young activists from his 
home in Tucson, Arizona. In fact, Time magazine recognized Deloria as 
one of the 11 most influential religious thinkers of the twentieth 
century. As Indian Country Today notes, ``Vine Deloria Jr. provided 
enormous perception, guidance, strategy and sheer analytical heft to 
the struggle for respect and justice for American Indians.''
  Dr. Vine Deloria, Jr., is an extraordinary pioneer and supporter of 
Native American rights and the honor of winning the American Indian 
Visionary Award is one he highly deserves. He is a man of great 
scholarship and knowledge, and will continue to shape history for years 
to come. Dr. Deloria has never sought honors or recognition, but his 
scholarship has brought him well-deserved accolades. It is an honor for 
me to share his accomplishments with my colleagues and to publicly 
commend Dr. Deloria on his talent and commitment to history, 
understanding, and education.

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