Zitkala-Sa
| Zitkála-Šá | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Native name | Zitkála-Šá, "Red Bird" |
| Born |
February 22, 1876 Yankton Indian Reservation, South Dakota |
| Died | January 26, 1938 (aged 61) Washington, DC |
| Resting place | Arlington National Cemetery |
| Other names | Gertrude Simmons Bonnin |
| Education | White's Manual Labor Institute, Wabash, Indiana |
| Alma mater | Earlham College |
| Occupation | Writer, editor, musician, teacher and Native American activist |
| Employer | Carlisle Indian Industrial School, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Uintah-Ouray reservation |
| Known for | Co-composed the first American Indian opera, founded the National Council of American Indians, wrote books and magazine articles |
| Notable work | Sun Dance Opera, Old Indian Legends, American Indian Stories, "Oklahoma's Poor Rich Indians" |
| Spouse(s) | Raymond Bonnin |
| Children | Son, Ohíya |
| Parent(s) | Mother, Ellen Simmons, also called Taté Iyòhiwin ("Every Wind" or "Reaches for the Wind") |
Zitkála-Šá (1876–1938) (Lakota: pronounced zitkála-ša, which translates to "Red Bird"), also known by the missionary-given name Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, was a Sioux (Yankton Dakota) writer, editor, musician, teacher and political activist. She wrote several works chronicling her youthful struggles with identity and pulls between the majority culture and her Native American heritage. Her later books in English were among the first works to bring traditional Native American stories to a widespread white readership.
Working with American William F. Hanson, Zitkala-Ša wrote the libretto and songs for The Sun Dance Opera, (1913), the first American Indian opera. (It was composed in romantic style based on Sioux and Ute themes.)
She was a co-founder of the National Council of American Indians in 1926 to lobby for rights to United States citizenship and civil rights. Zitkala-Ša served as its president until her death in 1938. Her life has been recorded in the biography Red Bird, Red Power: The Life and Legacy of Zitkála-Šá (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016).
Zitkála-Šá was born on February 22, 1876 on the Yankton Indian Reservation in South Dakota. She was raised by her mother, Ellen Simmons, whose Dakota name was Thaté Iyóhiwiŋ (Every Wind or Reaches for the Wind). Her father was a European-American man named Felker, who abandoned the family while Zitkala-Ša was very young.
For her first eight years, Zitkála-Šá lived on the reservation. She later described those days as ones of freedom and happiness, safe in the care of her mother's people and tribe. In 1884, when Zitkala-Ša was eight, missionaries came to the Yankton Reservation. They recruited several of the Yankton children, including Zitkala-Šá, taking them for education to the White's Manual Labor Institute, a boarding school in Wabash, Indiana. This training school was founded by Quaker Josiah White for the education of "poor children, white, colored, and Indian," with the goal of helping them advance in society.
Zitkála-Šá attended the school for three years until 1887. She later wrote about this period in her work, The School Days of an Indian Girl. She described both the deep misery of having her heritage stripped away, when she was forced to pray as a Quaker and cut her traditionally long hair, and the contrasting joy of learning to read and write, and to play the violin.
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