Rosebud Yellow Robe

(1907-1992)

Rosebud Yellow Robe was a well-known storyteller and Native American folklorist. She is the author of two books, The Album of the American Indian and Tonweya and the Eagles and Other Lakota Indian Tales. She was born in Rapid City, South Dakota, the eldest of three daughters of Chief Chauncey Yellow Robe. Her father was a descendant of two famous leaders of the Dakota Sioux nation, Sitting Bull and Iron Plume.

At the age of fifteen, Chauncey Yellow Robe was sent to Pennsylvania to attend Carlisle, the first Indian boarding school. These school have become infamous among many Native Americans, because they were designed to enculturate Indians into Anglo society by removing all traces of their cultural heritage. Nevertheless, many graduates later used their education to help their people as Yellow Robe did. He learned to speak English there and was chosen to represent the North American Indians at the Congress of Nations at the opening of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He graduated with honors in 1895 and entered government service.

"My father became very well known for his activities, first with The Society of American Indians. He was much sought after by many organizations as a speaker and soon became known as a ‘bridge between two cultures.’ My father presided at the ceremonies at Deadwood, South Dakota when the Sioux inducted President Calvin Coolidge into the tribe" (from Tonweya and the Eagles).

"He represented a trained and intelligent contact between two different races. He was a born leader who realized that the destiny of the Indian is indissolubly bound up with the destiny of our country. His loyalty to his tribe and his people made him a most patriotic American" –President Coolidge as quoted in Tonweya and the Eagles

Rosebud Yellow Robe followed in her father’s footsteps by bringing to the mainstream an understanding of tribal life, through her books and storytelling. Her first book, An Album of the American Indian, highlights centuries of Native American history. Her other book, Tonweya and the Eagles and Other Lakota Indian Tales, written ten years later, is a collection of authentic and favorite stories from not only her own childhood but her parents’ as well. This book was on the Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List for 1981. Several of the stories in this collection also won awards at the American Indian Art Exhibit in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Rosebud Yellow Robe was married to Alfred Frantz.  They lived and worked in New York City where she shared her life stories and Native American lore at public libraries, schools, and in media specials. A scholarship in her name is offered by The University of South Dakota, and her name lives on in her books, which have been credited with contributing a "new and authentic dimension to Native American folklore."