19th Century France
72nd century
A01=Zitkala-Sa
Author_Zitkala-Sa
Category=DNBA
Category=DNC
Category=GB
Category=JBSL11
Category=NHB
Category=NHK
Category=NHTB
Character Development
Class Struggle
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
ex-convict
France
French historical novel
French Literature
French Revolution
heroism
Historical Context
Historical Fiction
Hugo's Epic
injustice
June Rebellion
Literary Masterpiece
Major Themes
mistaken identity
Paris
Political and Social Critique
poverty
Redemption
Romantic Drama
Social Justice
Victor Hugo
Product details
- ISBN 9781513137513
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 01 Sep 2022
- Publisher: West Margin Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Combining personal experience with traditional storytelling, Zitkála-Sá reflects on her life as a young woman raised on the Yankton Indian Reservation in South Dakota and educated at a Quaker school in Indiana. Whether remembering her mother, reflecting on the importance of legends, or recalling her first time making coffee, Zitkála-Sá, in American Indian Stories, uses her voice to elevate her people.
Zitkála-Šá (1876-1938) was a Yankton Dakota writer, translator, musician, teacher, and activist. Born on the Yankton Indian Reservation in South Dakota, Zitkála-Šá—also known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin—was raised by her mother following their abandonment by her German American father. Zitkála-Šá grew up on the reservation, but was taken by missionaries at the age of eight to the White’s Indiana Manual Labor Institute, a Quaker school in Wabash, Indiana. There, Zitkála-Šá was forced to suppress her heritage by cutting her hair and praying as a Quaker, but she also took advantage of the opportunity to learn reading and writing, as well as to play violin. She briefly returned to the reservation in 1887 before going back to Indiana to finish her education, after which she studied at Earlham College and played violin at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. After working from 1899 to 1901 as a music teacher at the notoriously abusive Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, Zitkála-Šá began to speak out against the program. In 1901, she wrote an article for Harper’s Monthly chronicling a young boy’s experience as a student at the school, where he felt forced to sacrifice his identity in order to assimilate. That same year, Zitkála-Šá began collecting stories for Old Indian Legends, which recorded traditional stories she learned in her youth and from members of various tribes. Over the next several decades, she wrote several story collections, countless articles for Harper’s Monthly and the Atlantic Monthly, and the libretto and songs for The Sun Dance Opera (1913). She also worked as an advocate and activist for the rights of women and American Indians, founding the National Council of American Indians with her husband and running grassroots policy and voter-registration campaigns around the country. She is remembered not only for her contributions to American Indian culture as a writer and translator, but for her tireless advocacy for resistance and reform that led to better education, healthcare, and legal standing for American Indians nationwide.
