Eastman, Mary Henderson (1818–1887) - Sioux History

Mary Henderson Eastman was born in Warrenton, Fauquier County, Virginia, on February 24, 1818, to Thomas Henderson, a physician and assistant surgeon general of the United States Army, and Anna Maria (Truxtun) Henderson. The family moved to Washington, D.C., and Mary lived there until her marriage in 1835 to Seth Eastman, a graduate of the United States Military Academy and a drawing teacher at West Point. In 1841 the Eastmans were transferred to a new command on the upper Mississippi River at Fort Snelling. Mary learned the Sioux language in order to study Sioux customs and lore. The result was Dahcotah; Or, Life and Legends of the Sioux Around Fort Snelling , illustrated by her husband, in 1849. That same year the Eastmans returned to Washington and Mary wrote an “anti-Uncle Tom” book called Aunt Phillis’s Cabin; Or Southern Life as It Is . This was followed by another joint venture, The Romance of Indian Life and The American Aboriginal Portfolios , both published in 1853. The next year she wrote Chicora and Other Regions of the Conquerors and the Conquered , followed by American Annual: Illustrative of the Early History of North America . In the following years, perhaps because her husband was stationed in other areas, Mary Eastman began writing romantic novels. She died in Washington of apoplexy on February 24, 1887.