Sarah Winnemucca, standing in traditional dress circa 1883-1890. ETH-82. Nevada Historical Society.
Sarah Winnemucca
A Paviotso Paiute, Sarah Winnemucca used her voice, knowledge of English, and position as the daughter of the chief of the Northern Paiute to defend her people against what she considered to be unjust treatment by federal and local officials. She worked as a translator for the United States Army and at various Indian agencies, but when she began to speak out about the treatment of the Paiute by those agents, she faced vigorous opposition. Some Indian agents, who accused her of being a “drunken prostitute” in an attempt to discredit her. Winnemucca was often caught between the white and Indian world. Her position as a translator created tension for her on both sides when she had to inform her friends and relatives of lies or unpleasant realities spoken by the white officials and when she defending her people against the actions of her employees. Although she eventually convinced President Hayes and Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior, that the Paiute had been unfairly removed from their reservation and moved to Washington, state Indian agents did not follow orders to allow the Indians to return to their original homeland, and even an Act of Congress in 1884 could not control the Western agents’ actions.
Winnemucca traveled the country lecturing on the wrongs committed against her people, and eventually returned to Nevada, where she built and operated a school for Indian children dedicated to preserving the native traditions and language of these students. The school, however, closed when the Dawes Severalty Act came into effect, forcing all Indian children to attend English-language boarding schools.
Although Winnemucca did not accomplish everything she wanted to, she holds a place in history as the first Indian woman to write a book (Life Among the Paiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims, published in 1884), and deserves recognition as a pioneer in human rights activism. She joined with non-Indian education activists Horace Mann, Elizabeth Peabody, and Mary Peabody Mann to promote education and the rights of the Paiute people. Her autobiography stands as a bridge between Indian oral traditions and white written traditions, just as her life was also a bridge between the two worlds.
Sources
http://nativeamericanrhymes.com/women/sarah_winnemucca.htm
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/oct14.html
http://www.unr.edu/wrc/nwhp/biograph/winnemucca.htm