Lakota Intelligentsia: A Native American Woman Coming of Age in a Modern World

By Dr. Wynne DuBray

Between the traditions and teachings of her upbringing and the hope for a better a life for herself and for her family, a Native American Sioux woman embarks on a journey that takes her from the idyllic Great Plains of South Dakota to the metropolitan cityscape of the Bay Area in Northern California.

In Lakota Intelligentsia, author Dr. Wynne DuBray shares in her coming-of-age memoir a story of cultural adaptation and empowerment as she navigates moving between her past and its traditions and her future and its possibilities. Inspired by the wave of liberation and activism that swept through the 1960s and 70s, DuBray seeks out a career in academia with the hope of becoming an advocate for multicultural awareness and mental health. But even more, her story is a tale of both her love of education and the special gifts that came from her spiritual being.

To move successfully between tradition, culture, and career, it takes balance, passion, and strength. Dr. DuBrays story speaks to her spirit and to her accomplishments, and it is a chronicle of how her spirituality helped her to continually hold on to a fading past in the face of a blossoming future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 6, 2017
• ISBN: 9781532012112

Dr. Wynne DuBray

Wynne DuBray is a professor emeritus at California State University, Sacramento, California, and she has an MSW degree in social work and a doctorate in psychology. She is also the author of several other books on spirituality, multiculturalism, and mental health, and Lakota Intelligentsia has been posthumously published as an intimate glimpse into her sense of spirituality and her love of education.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 Dr. Wynne Dubray.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

iUniverse

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5320-1212-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-1213-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-1211-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016921507

iUniverse rev. date: 03/03/2017

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

A Special Day

My Mother, Lily DuBray

My Father, Peter DuBray

Family Life

School Days

California, Here We Come

Further Education

Dreams

Psychic Encounters and Psychometry

Spiritual Experiences: Little Crow’s Meditation

Washington, DC, and a New Spirit Guide

Blessing the Workplace

The National Scene

Grants and Fundraising

Music

My Last Soul Mate

Retirement

The End of the Road

Epilogue

To Louise High Bear Rice, my grandmother

Interior_Image%201_Louise%20High%20Bear%20Rice%20-%20Wynne%20Dubray%27s%20Mother%27s%20Mother_20160516091137.jpg

Perhaps you have noticed that even in the slightest breeze you can hear the voice of the cottonwood tree; this we understand is its prayer to the Great Spirit, for not only men, but all things and all beings pray to Him continually in different ways.

—The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk’s Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux (1953)

Foreword

Every story has a beginning and an eventual end. So is the story of one’s life. My mother’s memoir traces the journey of a woman adapting from one culture to another in midcentury America. She was driven by wanting a better life for herself and her family while retaining the traditions and teachings of her upbringing.

Her journey took her from the Great Plains of South Dakota to the vast delta waterways of the Bay Area in California. After starting a family and putting my