Reginald Laubin

Reginald Laubin (1904 – April 5, 2000) was an American writer, dancer and expert on Native American culture and customs.

Biography

Performed dances of the American Plains Indians during the 1930s, 40's and 50's. Married to Gladys Laubin. The two lived in and extensively wrote about tipis and other structures and buildings used by Native Americans.

Mr. Laubin and his wife, Gladys, with whom he performed, were not Native American, but they studied Native American dance and culture with Sioux, Crow, Cheyenne and other Plains Indians. Reginald and Gladys were adopted by the Sioux tribe and were respectively given the names of Tatanka Wanjila (One Bull) and Wiyaka Wastewin (Good Feather Woman). The two later lived with the Crow tribe in the state of Montana.

The Laubins performed and gave lecture demonstrations throughout the United States and around the world in front of all manner of audiences.

Death and afterward

Laubin died on Wednesday, April 5, 2000 at a hospital in Urbana, Illinois.

The Spurlock Museum, opened in 2002, named its Laubin Gallery of American Indian Cultures in the couple's honor.

Partial bibliography

*"The Indian Tipi,", (with Reginald Laubin & Gladys Laubin, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1957
*"Indian Dances of North America", (with Reginald Laubin & Gladys Laubin, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1977
* "American Indian Archery", (with Reginald Laubin & Gladys Laubin, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1980

References

* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B01E0DF143EF932A25757C0A9669C8B63 Reginald Laubin Obituary]