He is the son of scholar Vine Deloria, Junior. (Dakota) and a descendant of Civil War General Alfred Sully and painter Thomas Sully. Philip Joseph Deloria is the son of Vine and Barbara Deloria, Junior.
His father was a scholar, writer, and activist for Native American rights who earned national recognition for his 1969 book, Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto.
Deloria received his Doctor of Philosophy in American Studies from Yale University and currently teaches in the Department of American Culture at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor as a Carroll Smith-Rosenberg Collegiate Professor.
Deloria is the author of prize-winning texts, Playing Indian (1999) and Indians in Unexpected Places (2004). Philip J. Deloria"s paternal grandmother Ella Deloria (Yankton Sioux) worked as an ethnologist and Deloria"s great-great grandfather Philip Joseph Deloria, also known as Tipi Sapa (Black Lodge), worked as an Episcopal priest. Philip J. Deloria is also the great-great-great grandson of United States Army officer and painter Alfred Sully, and the great-great-great-great-grandson of painter Thomas Sully.
Deloria graduated from the University of Colorado in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering in Music Education.
In 1988, Deloria completed his Master of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Colorado, as well. Doctorate. in American Studies from Yale University in 1994.
Deloria worked as a professor at the University of Colorado in the Department of History from 1994-2000 and is currently a professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in both the Department of American Culture and the Department of History. Deloria is also the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education in the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor"s College of Literature Science and the Arts.
Vine Deloria, Junior. was of European and Yankton Sioux descent, and an enrolled tribal member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota.
