Zitkála-Šá
(1876-1928)
Writer, Translator, Musician/Composer, Educator, Activist
Zitkála-Šá was a Native American woman who fought for the rights of others until the end of her life.
Zitkála-Šá was born in 1876 and spent her early years in the Yankton Indian Reservation. Life changed for her when she left her community to attend a Quaker mission-run boarding school. At this boarding school she had the opportunity to receive an education and while there, she found a love for reading, writing, and music.
Unfortunately, while she was grateful for the education she gained, she found it to also be a traumatic experience. She soon realized that in order to receive her education she would be forced to forget her culture to be fully "Americanized". Despite this traumatic experience, she would hold on to her heritage more than ever and would ensure that others would know of her heritage as well.
Zitkála-Šá began taking action where she would do everything from writing about her own experiences and the experiences of other Native Americans being stripped from their heritage, to collecting, translating (into English and Latin), and publishing stories from her community in order to preserve these Native American stories and legends. Her writing would even be published in popular magazines of the time such as Harper's and The Atlantic Monthly. Later on, she cowrote what is considered to be the first Native American opera called The Sun Dance Opera. Zitkála-Šá was not only a great writer but a great orator as well. In fact, she gave one of her first speeches on women's inequality, which was highly praised.
It wasn't long before Zitkála-Šá became politically involved. Zitkála-Šá would speak out about the abuse and the horrible practices at boarding schools of stripping away the culture identity of all Native Americans. She worked endlessly to preserve her heritage and fought to "help Indians help themselves in protecting their rights and properties".
Zitkála-Šá and her husband went on to found the National Council of American Indians where she would continue to educate the public and strive for the rights of women and Native Americans regarding education, health, employment, economics, and religion until she passed away in 1928.
Zitkála-Šá has done so much more in her lifetime so please check out this link to learn more!
"There is no great; there is no small; in the mind that causeth all. "
- Zitkála-Šá-
Works Cited
- https://www.utahwomenshistory.org/bios/zitkala-sa/
- https://wams.nyhistory.org/modernizing-america/xenophobia-and-racism/zitkala-sa/
- https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/zitkala-sa-american-indian-composer-author-activist-qqjsyq/15380/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zitkala-Sa
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