DELORIA, ELLA CARA. (1889–1971). Ella Cara Deloria was born January 31, 1889, on the Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation in southeastern South Dakota. She was the daughter of the Reverend Philip Deloria, an Episcopal priest, and Mary Sully Bordeaux. Her parents were enrolled members of the Yankton Sioux tribe, and both were descended from Dakota (Sioux) and Euro-American ancestors. The year after Ella's birth, her father was given charge of St. Elizabeth's Mission in north-central South Dakota, on the Standing Rock Reservation. Because his parishioners and the children attending the mission school were primarily Hunkpapa and Blackfoot Tetons (Lakotas), the Deloria family adopted the ḻ dialect of the Tetons in place of the d dialect of the Yanktons. Therefore, Deloria, although a Yankton, grew up speaking the Lakota dialect of the Sioux language.

Deloria's primary schooling was at St. Elizabeth's until 1902, when she attended All Saints, an Episcopal boarding...