Zitkala-Sa: An American Indian Voice
The legacy of Zitkala-Sa lives on as one of the most influential Native American activists of the 20th century. She left an influential theory of Indian resistance and a crucial model for reform. It was the activism of Zitkala-Sa that made possible crucial changes to education, health care, and legal standing for Native American people and the preservation of Indian culture.
Zitkala-Sa’s Literary Work
“Much of Zitkala-Sa’s work is characterized by its transitional nature: tensions between tradition and assimilation, between literature and politics. These tensions are most notable in her autobiographical works. In her well-known “American Indian Stories”, for example, she both expresses a literary account of her life and delivers a political message. The narrative expresses her tension between wanting to follow the traditions of the Yankton Dakota while being excited about learning to read and write, and being tempted by assimilation. This tension has been described as generating much of the dynamism of her work.” Wikipedia
Zitkala-Sa: An American Indian Voice
By D. S. Mitchell
Who was Zitkala-Sa?
Zitkala-Sa was an American Indian woman who was an influential voice for indigenous people. Red Bird was a writer, editor, translator, composer, musician, educator, and political activist. She struggled with her cultural identity and took that struggle to the written page. She also wrote books about traditional Native American myths and stories. Her writings were well-known to a white English-speaking readership. She is considered among one of the most influential Native Americans of the twentieth century.
Red Bird
Zitkala-Sa was born February 22, 1876 on the Yankton Dakota Reservation in South Dakota. Zitkala-Sa means “Red Bird”. She was later given the missionary name of Gertrude Simmons. Ellen Simmons, a Yankton Dakota woman whose Dakota name was Thate Ivohiwin (Every Wind or Reaches for the Wind) was her mother. Her father was a German-American man who left the family when Zitkala-Sa was very young. Gertrude later married Raymond Bonnin and is often known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin.
Missionary School
Zitkala-Sa spent her first eight years on the reservation. Later in life she saw those days as ones of happiness and well-being, safe in the care of her mother’s people. In 1884, she was recruited by a group of missionaries to leave the reservation for education. She went to study at White’s Indiana Manual Labor Institute. The WIMLI was a Quaker school. The school was founded by Josiah White. The mission was to educate “poor children, white, colored, and Indian,” leading to their social advancement.
“School Days of an Indian Girl”
Zitkala-Sa attended the school for three years until 1887. She wrote about the three years at the school in her book, The School Days of an Indian Girl . She described the struggles with cultural identity and the push and pull between the majority white culture she was educated within and her native culture which formed her most early development. She felt a deep misery for having her heritage ripped away when she was required to pray as a Quaker and the shame of cutting her traditionally long hair. However, on the other hand, she took great joy in learning to read and write, and to play the violin and piano.
Neither Here Nor There
In 1887 she returned to the Yankton Reservation to live with her mother. She was dismayed to find that despite her longing for the native Yankton traditions, she discovered she no longer fully belonged to them. In addition, she began to believe that the dominant white culture was overwhelming the Native American people even on the reservation. Many traditional native religious activities were even banned by white law.
Back to School
In 1891, Zitkala-Sa at age 15 returned to the White’s Indiana Manual Labor Institute. She had high goals. She wanted to be more than a housekeeper for some rich family. She loved music and studied piano and violin. She even taught music at the school when a teacher resigned. In June 1895, she received her diploma. As a designated speaker at the graduation she spoke to the inequality of women, for which she received high praise from the local newspaper.
Earlham College
Her mother hoped Zitkala-Sa would return to the reservation but instead Zitkala-Sa chose to attend Earlham College. She had been offered a scholarship, which was rare in those days, especially for a woman. Initially she felt isolated and uncertain among the mostly white students. She quickly stood out as a talented orator, she turned heads with a speech entitled “Side by Side” in 1896.
Collecting Native Indian Myths and Stories
While at Earlham College she began gathering traditional stories from a number of Native tribes, translating them to English and writing them down for children to read. Zitkala-Sa studied and played the violin at the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, from 1897-1899.
Carlisle Influence
In 1899 she took a position in Pennsylvania at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School teaching music to children. While at the school she also conducted debates on the treatment of Native Americans. At the 1900 Paris Exposition she played violin with the school’s Carlisle Indian Band.
Assimilation Costly
At about the same time she began writing articles on Native American life that were published in high profile monthly magazines such as Atlantic Monthly and Harper’s Monthly. She was an outspoken critic of the American Indian boarding school system and the deracination of Indian life. She published an article in Harper’s describing the profound loss of identity felt by a Native American boy after undergoing the assimilationist education at the school.
Trouble Back at Home
In 1900, Zitkala-Sa returned to the Yankton Reservation to recruit students for the Carlisle School. It was her first visit in several years, and she was immediately disturbed by the disrepair of her mother’s house. Further, most members of her family had fallen into poverty. To make matters worse, white settlers were beginning to occupy lands allotted to the the Yankton Dakota Sioux under the 1887 Dawes Act.
Discharged
Upon returning to the Carlisle School, she came into conflict with one of the founders of the school. She wanted changes in the curriculum. She was angry that the program was so rigid and its major goal to assimilate native children into the white culture. She stressed that the existing program prepared Native American children only for low-level manual work, assuming they would return to rural cultures. Zitkala-Sa was fired from the school’s faculty in 1901.
Back to the Yankton Reservation
After leaving Carlisle, Zitkala-Sa returned to the Yankton Reservation in 1901. Back on the reservation she took care of her ill mother and continued gathering material for her collection of traditional Sioux stories. In 1902 she met and married Raymond Talefase Bonnin. Bonnin is thought to have been of mixed race, possibly one quarter Yankton Dakota ancestry and white. Bonnin was a Captain in the army. He was assigned to the Uintah-Ouray reservation in Utah. For the next fourteen years, the couple lived and worked there with the Ute people. During this period, Zitkala-Sa gave birth to their only child, Alfred Ohiya Bonnin.
Two Writing Periods
Zitkala-Sa had two major writing periods in her life. The first period was from 1900 to 1904, During this time she published legends collected from Native American culture, as well as numerous autobiographical narratives. Harper’s Monthly, published “Soft-Hearted Sioux”, “The Trial Path” and “A Warrior’s Daughter”.
The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic Monthly between 1900-1902 published several articles by Zitkala-Sa. They included “An Indian Teacher Among Indians,” “Impressions of an Indian Childhood” and “School Days of an Indian Girl”. These autobiographical pieces describe in detail her early experiences both on the reservation and her later conflict in struggling with assimilation to the dominant American culture. The Atlantic Monthly in 1902 published “Why I Am a Pagan”. In the article she discussed her personal spiritual beliefs. She further argued Native Americans did not readily adopt and conform to the Christianity forced on them in schools and public life.
The Sun Dance Opera
Zitkala-Sa wrote the libretto and songs for The Sun Dance Opera in collaboration with American musician William F. Hanson. She also played Sioux melodies on the violin, and Hanson used this as the basis of his music composition. It is the first American Indian Opera. The style is romantic musical and is based on Sioux and Ute traditional themes. She had met Hanson in 1910 while living in Utah. Zitkala-Sa based the opera on sacred Sioux ritual, which the federal government prohibited the Ute from performing on the reservation. The opera premiered in Utah in 1913.
From 1916-1924
The second great writing period for Zitkala-Sa (ignoring the time spent writing the Sun Dance Opera) was from 1916 to 1924. During this period, she concentrated on writing and publishing political works. Zitkala-Sa and her husband had moved to Washington, D.C., where she became increasingly politically active.
Influential Writings
During this time she published some of her most influential writings, including: American Indian Stories (1921). She co-authored Oklahoma’s Poor Rich Indians: An Orgy of Graft and Exploitation of the Five Civilized Tribes, Legalized Robbery (1923), an influential pamphlet with Charles H. Fabens of the American Indian Defense Association and Matthew K. Sniffen of the Indian Rights Association.
Effecting Policy
“Oklahoma’s Poor Rich Indians” was published in 1923 by the Indian Rights Association. The article exposed several American corporations that had been working systematically, through such extra-legal means including murder, to defraud Native American tribes, particularly the Osage, of their rights to leasing-fees from development of their oil-rich land in Oklahoma. The work influenced Congress to pass the Indian Reorganization Act which encouraged tribes to re-establish self-government, including management of their lands. Under this act, the government returned some lands to them as communal property, which it had previously classified as surplus.
American Indian Magazine
The Society of American Indians, published the American Indian Magazine. Zatkala-Sa was an active member of the group. From 1918 to 1919 she served as editor for the magazine, as well as being a major contributor. The topics were wide ranging and explicitly political, covering such subjects as the contribution of Native American soldiers to World War I, issues of land allotment, and corruption within the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the agency within the Department of Interior that oversees American Indians.
Political Power
She called for recognition of Native American culture and traditions, while also advocating US citizenship rights to bring Native Americans into mainstream America. She believed this was how they could protect their cultures through gaining political power. She has been criticized by some for what some consider her encouraging assimilation.
Political Activism
Shortly after arriving on the Uintah-Ouray reservation in Utah Zitkala-Sa joined the Society of American Indians a progressive group formed in 1911. The mission was to preserve the Native American way of life while lobbying for the right to full American citizenship. The overall goals for the Society of American Indians was to “help Indians help themselves in protecting their rights and properties”. Since the late 20th century, activists have criticized the SAI and Zitkala-Sa as misguided in their strong advocacy of citizenship and employment rights for Native Americans. These critics feel that Native Americans have lost cultural identity as they have become more part of mainstream American society.
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Zitkala-Sa began to criticize practices of the BIA, such as their attempt at the national boarding schools to prohibit Native American children from using their native languages and cultural practices. She reported abuse resulting from children’s refusal to pray in the Christian manner. Her husband was dismissed from his BIA office at the Ute reservation in 1916. The couple and their son relocated to Washington D.C. after the job loss.
Spreading the Word
From Washington, Zitkala-Sa began lecturing nationwide on behalf of the SAI to promote the cultural and tribal identity of Native Americans. She promoted a pan-Indian movement to unite all of America’s tribes in the cause of lobbying for citizenship rights. In 1924 the Indian Citizenship Act was passed, granting US citizenship rights to most indigenous peoples who did not already have it. (About two-thirds of Native Americans were already citizens by the implementation of land allotment and other measures.)
Citizenship Discrimination
While Native Americans now had citizenship widespread discrimination remained. In some states their right to vote was denied, a situation not fully changed until the 1960s and Civil Rights Act. In 1926 she and her husband founded the National Council of American Indians. The organization was dedicated to the cause of uniting the tribes throughout the U.S. in the cause of gaining full citizenship rights through suffrage.
Women’s Concerns
From 1926 until her death in 1938, Zitkala-Sa served as president, major fundraiser, and speaker for the NCAI. Zitkala-Sa was also active in the 1920s in the movement for women’s rights, joining the General Federation of Women’s Clubs in 1921. This grassroots organization was dedicated to diversity in its membership and to maintaining a public voice for women’s concerns. Through the GFWC she created the Indian Welfare Committee in 1924.
Working For Civil Rights
In 1924, Zitkala-Sa ran a voter-registration drive among Native Americans. She encouraged them to support the Curtis Bill, which she believed would be favorable for Indians. Though the bill granted Native Americans U.S. citizenship, it did not grant those living on reservations the right to vote in local and state elections. Zitkala-Sa continued to work for civil rights, and better access to health care and education for Native Americans through out her life.
Legacy
Zitkala-Sa died at the age of 61 on January 26, 1938, in Washington, D.C. She is buried as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin in Arlington National Cemetery. A crater on Venus was named “Bonnin” in her honor. In 1997 she was designated a Women’s History Month Honoree by the National Women’s History Project. Zitkala-Sa lived in the Lyon Park neighborhood of Arlington County Virginia, just outside Washington, DC where there is a park named in her honor.
References:
- Zitkala-Sa. Dreams and Thunder: Stories, Poems, and The Sun Dance Opera. Edited by P. Jane Hafen. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001.
- Zitkala-Sa: Letters, Speeches, and Unpublished Writings, 1898–1929. Edited by Tadeusz Lewandowski. Leiden, Boston: Brill Press, 2018.
- Wikipedia
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