Charles Alexander Eastman (Ohiyesa) (1858-1939) was a Dakota physician and writer. When as a young child his life was upended by the Dakota War of 1862, Eastman fled from the Dakota homelands in Minnesota to Canada under the protection of his grandmother and uncle. There he was schooled in indigenous lifeways until the age of fifteen, when his father took him back to his homestead in present-day South Dakota. Eastman received a bachelor of science degree from Dartmouth in 1887 and a medical degree from Boston University three years later. His first appointment as a physician was at the Pine Ridge Agency, where he cared for the Lakota victims of the Massacre at Wounded Knee. In addition to two autobiographical works, Indian Boyhood (Nebraska, 1991), and From the Deep Woods to Civilization (Nebraska, 1977), Eastman wrote nine other books, some in collaboration with his wife, Elaine Goodale Eastman. Brenda J. Child (Red Lake Ojibwe) is Northrop Professor of American Studies at the University of Minnesota.

She is the author of several books on Native American history, including Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940 (Nebraska, 2000).