Zitkala sa autobiography summary
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Zitkála-Šá (“Red Bird”), also known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, was a Native American musician, writer and activist who fought for women's suffrage and Indigenous voting rights in the early 20th century. Her writings and activism led to citizenship and voting rights for not only women, but all Indigenous people.
Zitkála-Šá was born on the Yankton Indian Reservation in South Dakota on February 22, 1876, the same year that the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho peoples defeated the U.S. Army under the command of General Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. She was a member of the Yankton Sioux (or Dakota) Nation. Her mother, “Reaches for the Wind” or Ellen Simmons, was of Sioux Dakota heritage and her father was of French descent. After her father abandoned the family, Zitkála-Šá was raised by her mother and aunts. At the age of eight, missionaries from the White’s Manual Labor Institute came to the reservation to recruit children for their boarding school. Zitkála-Šá’s mother was
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My Mother
There fryst vatten a path that leads from Zitkala-Sa's neighborhood to the river, and every day her mother treads the path several times in order to get vatten for the family. As a young girl, Zitkala-Sa feels free as a bird, and at one with the nature around her. By contrast, her mother always looks sad, as if the weight of the world is on her shoulders. Zitkala-Sa tells her mother that once she turns seventeen years old she will take over the water carrying duties for the household, like her older cousin has done. Her mother makes a throwaway comment, suggesting that the paleface will take their water from them by the time that day comes. When Zitkala-Sa doesn't understand, she explains that they have taken much from their community and it is because of paleface that Zitkala-Sa's uncle and cousin are dead.
The Dead Man's Plum Bush
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American Indian Stories
1921 book by Zitkala-Ša
American Indian Stories is a collection of childhood stories, allegorical fictions and essays written by Sioux writer and activist Zitkala-Ša.[1]
First published in 1921, American Indian Stories details the hardships encountered by Zitkala-Ša and other Native Americans in the missionary and manual labour schools.[2] The autobiographical details contrast her early life on the Yankton Indian Reservation and her time as a student at White's Manual Labour Institute and Earlham College.[3] The collection includes legends and stories from Sioux oral tradition, along with an essay titled America's Indian Problem, which advocates for rights for Native Americans and calls for a greater understanding of Native American cultures. American Indian Stories offers a unique view into a society that is often overlooked though that society still persists to this day.[4]