There is no great, there is no small, in the mind that causeth all.
Zitkala-Sa, (1876 - 1938)
Zitkala-Sa, Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, was a Native American author imbued with spirit, courage and determination which very much showed in her writing. She was a free spirit who knew at an early age what she wanted, where she wanted to go and how to go about getting there. In her book, "American Indian Stories", written in 1900, her first chapter gives a strong impression of a child who knew herself and aimed to be free, running like the wind. In this chapter, she wrote about memories of her Mother and the tears she did not understand. She had a great talent and with words painted vivid images of her childhood.
From "IMPRESSIONS OF AN INDIAN CHILDHOOD"
MY MOTHER.
A wigwam of weather-stained canvas stood at the base of some irregularly ascending hills. A footpath wound its way gently down the sloping land till it reached the broad river bottom; creeping through the long swamp grasses that bent over it on either side, it came out on the edge of the Missouri.
Here, morning, noon, and evening, my mother came to draw water from the muddy stream for our household use. Always, when my mother started for the river, I stopped my play to run along with her. She was only of medium height. Often she was sad and silent, at which times her full arched lips were compressed into hard and bitter lines, and shadows fell under her black eyes. Then I clung to her hand and begged to know what made the tears fall.
"Hush. My little daughter must never talk about my tears"; and smiling through them, she patted my head and said, "Now let me see how fast you can run today." Whereupon I tore away at my highest possible speed, with my long black hair blowing in the breeze.
Zitkala-Sa (Red Bird) was born on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota at a time when her people were still loyal to their traditional lifestyle and lived in wigwams. She was raised by her mother Taté Iyòhiwin (Nakota for 'Reaches for the Wind'). Little is known about her father, Felker, who was a white man.
Like her mother, Ellen Simmons, Zitkala-Sa was given a Christian name which was Gertrude. At the age of eight, Zitkala-Sa left the reservation to attend Whites Manual Labor Institute, a Quaker mission school in Wabash, Indiana. With the "paleface" Quaker missionaries visiting her reservation, Zitkala-Sa was strongly lured by their promises of apple orchards. Having never been deceived, she trusted them despite her mother’s warnings. The young child’s innocence led her to desire the apple orchards and to choose to be educated by the missionaries. Taté Iyòhiwin finally gave in. She knew that it would be a hard transition for her child from innocence to experience, but she also believed that her child would need the education when there were more Europeans than Native Americans. It is evident because of this that Taté Iyòhiwin was a woman of vision from which Zitkala-Sa inherited the same gift of insight.
Once Zitkala-Sa began learning, she never stopped. She went on to study for a time at Earlham College in Indiana and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. She later became a teacher and taught at Carlisle Indian Industrial School, then moved to Boston and began publishing short stories and short autobiographicals, which were serialized in Atlantic Monthly from January to March 1900 and later published in a collection called American Indian Stories in 1921. Her first book, Old Indian Legends, is a collection of folktales from her home on the Yankton Reservation.
Zitkala-Sa met and married Captain Raymond Bonnin, also of mixed blood Nakota, in 1902 on her own reservation. Bonnin worked with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They had one son, Ohiya. When she moved to Utah with her husband and son, Zitkala-Sa met composer William F. Hanson, an instructor at Brigham Young University. In collaboration with Hanson she began composing music for an opera, The Sun Dance, which was produced in Utah in 1913.
From 1916 to 1924, while living in Washington, D.C., she published some of her most influential writings which included American Indian Stories. Her creativity in writing stories and prose gave her a productive career throughout her life. She was also very much involved in politics as an activist and during 1916 - 1924, most of her writings were political in nature. She founded the National Council of American Indians in 1926, where she served as president until her death.
Zitkala-Sa filled her life with being a prolific author, editor, teacher and political activist. She had no time for tears. The tears her mother shed belonged to memories of a distant past that only Taté Iyòhiwin could give voice to.
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