The School Days of an Indian Girl, and an Indian Teacher Among Indians
By Zitkala-Sa
1900
First Published
4.08
Average Rating
34
Number of Pages
Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (1876-1938), better known by her pen name, Zitkala-Sa, was a Native American writer, editor, musician, teacher and political activist. She was born and raised on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota by her mother. Zitkala-Sa lived a traditional lifestyle until the age of eight when she left her reservation to attend Whites Manual Labor Institute, a Quaker mission school in Indiana. She went on to study for a time at Earlham College in Indiana and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. A considerable talent, Bonnin co-composed the first American Indian grand opera, The Sun Dance in 1913. After working as a teacher at Carlisle Indian Industrial School, she began publishing short stories and autobiographical vignettes. Her autobiographical writings were serialized in Atlantic Monthly and, later, published in a collection called American Indian Stories in 1921. Her first book, Old Indian Legends (1901), is a collection of folktales that she gathered during her visits home to the Yankton Reservation. Her other works include Stories of Iktomi and Other Legends of the Dakotas (1901) and Oklahoma's Poor Rich Indians (1924).
Avg Rating
4.08
Number of Ratings
118
5 STARS
33%
4 STARS
43%
3 STARS
22%
2 STARS
2%
1 STARS
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Author
Zitkala-Sa
Author · 12 books
Zitkála-Šá (Dakota: pronounced zitkála-ša, which translates to "Red Bird") also known by the missionary-given name Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, was a Sioux writer, editor, musician, teacher and political activist. She wrote several works chronicling her struggles in her youth as she was pulled back and forth between the influences of dominant American culture and her own Native American heritage, as well as books in English that brought traditional Native American stories to a widespread white readership for one of the first times. With William F. Hanson, Bonnin co-composed the first American Indian opera, The Sun Dance (composed in romantic style based on Ute and Sioux themes), which premiered in 1913. She founded the National Council of American Indians in 1926 to lobby for the rights of Native Americans to American citizenship, and served as its president until her death in 1938.
