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A Doctor among the Oglala Sioux Tribe: The Letters of Robert H. Ruby, 1953-1954

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Description

In 1953 young surgeon Robert H. Ruby started work as the executive medical officer at the hospital at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He started writing almost day by day to his sister, describing the Oglala Lakota people he served, his Bureau of Indian Affairs colleagues, and day by day life at the reservation.
 
Ruby and his wife were active within the social life of the non-white community, which allowed Ruby, also a self-trained ethnographer, to write down in detail concerning the Oglala Lakota people and their culture, covering topics such as religion, art, traditions, and values. His frank and personal depiction of conditions he encountered at the reservation examines poverty, alcoholism, the training system, and employment conditions and opportunities. Ruby also wrote critically of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, describing the bureaucracy that made it difficult for him to do his job and kept his hospital permanently understaffed and undersupplied. These engaging letters provide a compelling memoir of life at Pine Ridge within the mid-1950s.

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