Zitkala-Sa

Writer, activist, educator, musician

• Born: February 22, 1876
• Birthplace: Yankton Indian Reservation, South Dakota
• Died: January 26, 1938
• Place of death: Washington, DC

Also known as: Gertrude Simmons Bonnin

Education: Earlham College; New England Conservatory of Music

Significance: Zitkala-Sa was a Native American writer, activist, educator, and musician. Her writings included fiction and autobiography, and her works often highlighted Native American struggles with identity. Zitkala-Sa worked with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Society of American Indians. She traveled the country speaking out against unfair treatment and promoted equal rights for Native Americans. Her efforts helped secure citizenship rights for Native Americans while also preserving indigenous culture.

Background

Zitkala-Sa was born on February 22, 1876, on the Yankton Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Her given name means “Red Bird.” She was the third child of Ellen Tate ‘I yohiwin Simmons, a member of the Yankton Nakota Sioux tribe. Her father was a white man who abandoned her mother when Zitkala-Sa was young. She was raised among traditional Nakota Sioux culture until early adolescence. She lived in a tepee near the Missouri River and grew up learning the history and customs of her people.

When she was eight years old, Zitkala-Sa left her reservation to attend a boarding school called the White’s Indiana Manual Labor Institute in Wabash, Indiana. The school was run by Quaker missionaries. Zitkala-Sa’s mother had also attended this school when she was young and had concerns about letting her daughter attend. She knew her daughter needed to learn the ways of the white settlers, however, realizing their increasing presence in the area.

Zitkala-Sa’s boarding school education changed her, and she described this period of her life in depressing terms. She spent three years at the institute learning how to read and write in English. Her time there slowly diminished her connection to Sioux traditions. She was forced to cut her long hair and made to pray as a Quaker. She was also given a Christian name: Gertrude. She returned to her reservation with less regard for her heritage than before. This created tension with her mother, who wanted her daughter to uphold Sioux customs. As described in her autobiography, Zitkala-Sa felt trapped between two existences. The school did introduce Zitkala-Sa to one of her great passions: the violin. Her violin served as a retreat in times of stress, and she remained committed to her musical studies throughout her life.

Feeling displaced among the Sioux at the Yankton reservation, Zitkala-Sa returned to school after four years intent on furthering her education. She studied violin and taught music at the institute for a short time. She graduated in 1895 and enrolled at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, at the age of nineteen. At college, she studied to become a teacher. She also made a name for herself as an orator and poet among her peers, even winning an oratory contest at the school.

Life’s Work

During her time at Earlham College, Zitkala-Sa began compiling Native American myths and legends and translating them into English. She left Earlham after two years due to poor health. In 1897, she began studying violin at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. She studied there until 1899 before leaving to teach music at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. In 1900, she traveled to France to play in the Paris Exposition with the school’s Carlisle Indian Band.

Zitkala-Sa also began writing and submitting articles detailing the shortcomings and abuses she witnessed while working for the Carlisle school. She published several articles in the Atlantic Monthly and Harper’s Monthly between 1898 and 1901. The school’s founder, Richard Henry Pratt, subjected his students to a harsh style of schooling. He also exploited the children to do unpaid labor for local farms. The school also did not encourage its students to aspire to anything more than menial work, which Zitkala-Sa considered an injustice. She believed the students should be taught to cherish their heritage and preserve their customs as well as to pursue their dreams.

In 1901, Zitkala-Sa’s article “The Soft-Hearted Sioux” was published in Harper’s Monthly. The article detailed a young Native American boy’s struggle with his identity after receiving a Christian education. Shortly after the article appeared, Zitkala-Sa was dismissed from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. That same year, she published Old Indian Legends, an anthology of Native American traditions. She then took a job as a clerk for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) at Standing Rock Indian Reservation in New Mexico. She later moved to a reservation in Utah, where she continued to support Native American activist causes. She then joined the Society of American Indians (SAI), corresponding with other members across the country to update them on her area’s Native American affairs. She also composed an opera in 1913 titled The Sun Dance Opera, the first Native American opera ever written.

Zitkala-Sa was named secretary of the SAI in 1916, and she and her husband moved to Washington, DC. She edited the organization’s journal American Indian Magazine from 1918 to 1919 and brought attention to corrupt practices within the BIA. The SAI focused on preserving Native American ways of life and lobbied for equal rights and suffrage. Zitkala-Sa regularly toured the country to speak on behalf of the SAI. In 1921, she published American Indian Stories, a collection of autobiographical and fictional stories. Her activism helped secure the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924. In 1926, Zitkala-Sa founded the National Council of American Indians, which sought to unite all Native American tribes and obtain citizenship for all Native Americans. Zitkala-Sa served as president of the council until her death in 1938.

Impact

Zitkala-Sa’s work shed light on the injustices experienced by Native Americans on many levels. Her efforts led to widespread social and political reform in support of the Native American community. She has been called one of the most influential Native Americans of the twentieth century. Although critics have argued that Zitkala-Sa’s pro-assimilation methods led to a weakening of Native American traditions, many of her efforts helped successfully preserve native culture.

Personal Life

Zitkala-Sa met Raymond Bonnin while working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The couple married in 1902. They had a son together named Ohiya.

Principal Works: Story Collections

Old Indian Legends, 1901

American Indian Stories, 1921

Principal Works: Music Compositions

The Sun Dance Opera, 1913

Bibliography

Capaldi, Gina, and Q. L. Pearce. Red Bird Sings: The Story of Zitkala-Ša, Native American Author, Musician, and Activist. Carolrhoda Books, 2013.

Cullen-DuPont, Kathryn. Encyclopedia of Women’s History in America. Facts on File, 2000.

Hoefel, Roseanne. “Zitkala-Sa.” The Online Archive of Nineteenth-Century U.S. Women’s Writings, www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/gcarr/19cUSWW/ZS/rh.html. Accessed 17 Sept. 2018.

Rappaport, Helen. Encyclopedia of Women Social Reformers, vol. 1, ABC-CLIO, 2001.

Rubin, Joan Shelley, et al., editors. The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History. Oxford UP, 2013.

Zitkala-Sa. American Indian Stories. Hayworth Publishing House, 1921.

“Zitkala-Sa: Red Bird.” Akta Lakota Museum and Cultural Center, aktalakota.stjo.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8882. Accessed 17 Sept. 2018.