Welcome to our 31st Woman of the Week!Today we will be discussing Sarah Winnemucca, a Native American author! Enjoy!
Accomplishments:
Winnemucca published the first English book written by an Indigenous woman
She gave over 300 speeches for support to her tribe
She acted as an interpreter between her tribe(Paiute) and the US Army, and at one point led her father’s band on a 3 day, 230 mile ride with little food and rest
Sarah Winnemucca was born in 1844 in Western Nevada and was a Northern Paiute Native American. Her Paiute name was Thocmetony. Her father was the chief of a tribe of a band of 150 people. At the age of six, Winnemucca and her family moved to Stockton, CA to work in the cattle industry. Through her grandfather(Truckee), the family had positive relations with White people and were able to learn English and European American culture, which aided her careers(SARAH WINNEMUCCA).
Winnemucca is well known as an activist, interpreter, writer, and teacher. She traveled across the United States to advocate for Native American rights and lobbied to Congress for the release of her people after the Bannock War. With her familiarity with both American culture and her own, she aided US Forces in being a guide, interpreter, and teaching in concentration camps. Winnemucca also founded a private school for Indigenous children in Nevada. However, one of her greatest accomplishments is her book “Life Among the Paiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims,” which was the first known autobiography by an indigenous woman and is a primary historical source for her time period.
Sarah Winnemucca died on October 16th, 1891. However, her imprint on American history still lives on. Today, Sarah Winnemucca is memorialized through statues, biographies, films, etc. Notably, her bronze installment in Washington D.C’s National Statuary Hall in 2005, her spot in the Nevada Writers’ Hall of Fame and the National Women’s Hall of Fame, and schools named after her. When we think about American history, we mostly think in the perspective of White people. However Winnemucca reminds us to stop not only indigenous narrative erasure, but any form that has made contribution in history and that will help us understand our world more.