Zitkala-Sa was born Gertrude Simmons on February 22, 1876, on the Yankton Indian Reservation in South Dakota, and died on January 26, 1938, in Washington, D.C.
Her legacy endures through her contributions as a writer, educator, activist, and musician. Her work continues to inspire generations with her unwavering commitment to her people and her vision for equality and cultural preservation. As Zitkala-Šá once said, "There had been no doubt about the direction in which I wished to go to spend my energies in a work for the Indian race."
Zitkala-Šá, (Red Bird, née Gertrude Simmons), was the last child born to Taté I Yóhin Win (Reaches for the Wind, or Every Wind). Abandoned by Gertrude’s father, her mother raised her children in traditional ways.
American Indian Stories is a collection of narratives written by Gertrude between 1900 and 1902. The work includes her semiautobiographical childhood memories through her teaching career. Also included are stories of female heroes, an exploration of her spirituality, and accounts of her political activism. In an unconventional move, in 1898, she gave herself the name Zitkala-Šá and published under that name.
Resource: American Indian Stories by Zitkála-Šá Gertrude (Simmons) Bonnin. This model teaching unit for Secondary Level Language Arts is an Indian Education for All Unit by the Montana Office of Public Instruction. A detailed weeks-long plan, it includes a day-by-day plan with suggestions for workshops and supplemental reading on American Indian Stories.
Writing about her seven-year-old self, Zitkala-Šá recalls, “These were my mother’s pride – my wild freedom and overflowing spirits. She taught me no fear save that of intruding myself upon others.” Her freedom and spirit unfolded over her lifetime as she became one of the greatest Native American activists of the 20th century.
She related with delight how she and her friends used to play as they were grownups, exchanging their necklaces and other items as gifts to each other. “We delighted in impersonating our own mothers. We talked of things we had heard them say in their conversations. We imitated their various manners, even to the inflection of their voices.” The free-spirited portrait of her earliest years holds the tinge of her future activism.
Her mother’s was the first Native American generation to adapt to reservation life. She describes her sadness and tears and tells about a time when her mother explained, “We were once happy. But the paleface has stolen our lands and driven us hither.”
When she was eight years old, Gertrude’s older brother Dawée returned from schooling in the East. Through his influence, the family home changed from a buffalo-skin—to canvas-covered wigwam to a log home in just two seasons. During that time, Quaker missionaries from the east arrived to recruit students to their schools, tempting youngsters with tales of abundant red apples and a trip on an iron horse.
Despite Dawée’s discouragement, Gertrude thirsted for learning and discovery. After painful deliberation her mother allowed her young daughter to go, believing that she would need the education.
Seeing her mother’s lonely figure as she departed, Gertrude felt deep regret. The trip with its strange new places, leering white faces, and days and nights of travel was daunting. Homesickness overwhelmed her by the time she arrived at White’s Institute in Wabash, Indiana, which was originally founded as an orphanage but in 1883 had opened an Indian School. The grounds did have an apple orchard, but it began to die off the year she arrived.
In “The School Days of an Indian Girl,” first published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1900, Zitkala-Šá was highly critical of her years at White’s. She recounted the day shortly after arriving there when they cut her hair. “Then I lost my spirit,” she wrote. Days were dominated by an “iron routine” of roll calls and a strict schedule punctuated by clamoring bells. The government-mandated curriculum was a routine of prayers, vocational training, and after-dinner lectures by the Quakers.
After three years at White’s, she returned to Yankton for “four strange summers.” During this time, she dressed in traditional dress but found a world at a crossroads in every way. “My mother had never gone inside of a schoolhouse, and so she was not capable of comforting her daughter who could read and write.” “Even nature seemed to have no place for me,” she continued, adding, “I was neither a wee girl nor a tall one; neither a wild Indian nor a tame one.”
Eventually, Gertrude felt driven to return to school in the east.
She went for a second term of three years at White’s and earned her diploma. Books, music, and writing comforted her. She loved to learn and was a good student, gravitating in particular to music. Her skill at the violin led to her replacing the music teacher who had resigned. And at graduation, her speech on women’s equality, “Side by Side,” was called a masterpiece in The Wabash Plain Dealer.
Next, she wrote, “I ventured upon a college career against my mother’s will.” It was not easy. “Often I wept in secret, wishing I had gone West to be nourished by my mother’s love instead of remaining among a cold race whose hearts were frozen hard by prejudice.” She knew her studies disappointed her mother, and she expressed sorrow about her choice at every turn.
At Earlham, also a Quaker institution, Gertrude was the only Native American student. She immersed herself in activity. She played the piano and violin, sang in the glee club, wrote articles and poems for the school newspaper, and participated in oratory.
She re-wrote “Side by Side,” into an argument for Indian equality. Gertrude gave the speech as Earlham’s representative at a state competition. Though there was strong prejudice, including a banner with the word “squaw,” Gertrude won one of two prizes that night. She wrote, “The little taste of victory did not satisfy a hunger in my heart. In my mind, I saw my mother far away on the Western plains, and she was holding a charge against me.”
Six weeks before she would have completed her studies at Earlham, Gertrude became ill and had to withdraw to recuperate. She left without earning a degree. Bouts of plagued her throughout the remainder of her life.
Still, her pride kept her from returning to her mother. She accepted an invitation to teach at Carlisle Indian Industrial School. In her words, “There had been no doubt about the direction in which I wished to go to spend my energies in a work for the Indian race.” She was resolved to dedicate herself to Indian education.
From 1897-1900, she worked at Carlisle. She threw herself into the work, conducting debates on the treatment of American Indians, teaching music and soon becoming the leader of the all-female Minnehaha Glee Club. She was a member of the Carlisle traveling band and played at the White House for President McKinley.
Sent west by none other than Captain Henry Richard Pratt to gather Indian pupils for Carlisle, Gertrude’s heart ached at what she found. Her brother, Dawée, wasn’t able to make use of the education he had received in the East. He had taken to farming, but to her surprise, the land that had been meant for the Indians was being taken up by Anglo settlers. She found her mother broken and angry and what the “palefaces” were doing.
In a section of American Indian Stories titled “Retrospection,” Zitkala-Šá describes the inner conflict that grew inside her as she returned to Carlisle. “At last, one weary day in the schoolroom, a new idea presented itself to me … I resigned my position as a teacher.” For a short while she studied music and voice at the New England Conservatory of Music.
During this period her writings for Harpers and Atlantic Monthly became a sort of public sparring with Captain Pratt about his ideas for Indian education. This time was short-lived, and soon she returned to Yankton with a book contract from the Boston publishing house Ginn & Company in hand. She compiled and published a collection of traditional stories from her culture called Old Indian Legends in 1901. Still publishing in the Atlantic Monthly, around this time she also penned “Why I Am a Pagan,” an expression of her distaste for Christianity and a declaration of the superiority of Native Spirituality. Therein she describes the “loving Mystery round about us” found in the natural world.
Resource: Why I Am a Pagan. First published in The Atlantic in 1902, this essay is Zitkála-Šá’s embrace of the fullness of her Native American spirituality. While she maintained that worldview throughout her life, she later converted to Catholicism as well as explored and respected other denominations.
Two men courted Zitkala-Šá during this time. One was Dr. Carlos Montezuma, a physician who lived in Chicago and was a friend and proponent of Pratt. The couple were unable to work out their differences, but Montezuma later came to terms with Zitkala-Šá’s point of activism and become a friend and supporter in her years in Washington, D.C.
The other gentleman, Raymond Bonnin, like Zitkala-Šá, was of mixed lineage and boarding school educated. His father had married into the Yankton tribe. By late 1902, they were married and headied to Utah for Raymond’s new post with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The Bonnins were assigned to the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, home of the Nothern Ute Indians. Over the years, Spanish settlement, French exploration, and encroaching settler migration had ravaged the tribe. A measles epidemic took its toll and the arrival of Morman settlers further decimated the Utes. Around the time the Bonnins arrived, the U.S. government opened the Ute’s land to white settlement.
Zitkala-Šá did little writing during this period but instead dedicated herself to the Native American cause and fighting the injustice she saw all around her. Most of her social life was with Mormons whom she found educational peers. She taught some piano lessons, and it was there that her only son Ohiya was born.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs briefly transferred the Bonnins to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in 1909. Zitkala-Šá did an about-face. Having once declared her distaste for Christianity, there she became a Catholic. One thing that makes this less surprising is that during the early twentieth century, the Catholic Church frequently aligned itself with the Native American cause. Zitkala-Šá forged a lasting relationship with Fr. William H. Ketcham, director of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions. Fr. Martin Kennel also became a friend and religious advisor. Over the years, Zitkala-Šá would from time to time enlist both men for assistance in personal and religious matters.
Shortly thereafter, the Bonnins returned to Utah where they had a land claim and wished to start up a ranch. There she frequently wrote letters to Fr. Kenel imploring his help in bringing Catholicism to the Utes.
Sometime after returning to Utah, the Bonnins attended a Ute Sun Dance ceremony. There, Zitkala-Šá encountered a music teacher William F. Hanson, whom she knew earlier. Though few details are available about this tim, by early 1913 The Sun Dance Opera debuted in 1913. It is the first Native American opera. Hanson collaborated on the project out of his admiration for American Indian culture. Zitkala-Šá’s motive was to validate her cultural heritage.
Resource: Zitkála-Šá and the Sun Dance Opera: A Forgotten Legacy. For the 2024 Women’s History Month, author Mitch Tousley wrote this piece for Provo Music Month on a piece of Utah’s musical history that he wants to maintain in the collective memory.
In 1914, still living in Utah, Zitkala-Šá joined the advisory board of the Society of American Indians (SAI). The society existed to inaugurate a strong movement in the interests of Native Americans. A year later, she was on the board of the society’s journal and a rising figure in the Native American rights movement.
Meanwhile, Zitkala-Šá established a community center where women sewed clothes and prepared meals. It was “a practical demonstration of female indigenous self-help,” which she saw as a model to be replicated in communities across the country to improve conditions for Native Americans.
By 1916, the SIA had become a strong platform for Zitkala-Šá, and she was elected to the position of secretary. Much of the Bonnin’s time in Utah was colored by bad politics and treachery in the Indian Service, and it became clear to them they could do much more in Washington, D.C.
During the years in Utah, the use of peyote in native religious ceremony had become of increasing concern to the SAI and to Zitkala-Šá. She had seen first-hand the spread of the peyote cult among the Ute. In 1918 she testified before a congressional subcommittee about madness and deaths she attributed to the drug. Moreover, she did not believe it to be an indigenous practice but an outside influence that had not been a traditional part of Plains Indian culture. She also wanted to spare youn women from sexual preditation, sometimes attributed to the drug.
Further supporting the anti-peyote stance were Dr. Charles Eastman and noneother than the retired now brigadier general Richard Henry Pratt. Their efforts were successful in the development of anti-peyote legislation.
As , Zitkala-Šá’s standing in the SIA grew, she took on the cause of Native freedom from government control through the protections of citizenship for Native Americans. By the end of World War I, 25% of the adult male Native population had served in the war, compared to 15% of all other American males. Her position: If the Indian is good enough to fight for America, he is good enough to be considered American.
At the same time, she found new support in the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. Through their efforts, the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote was ratified. They became a vital partner in her future work for Native American citizenship and voting rights. Through their efforts, in 1924, Indians gained U.S. citizenship through the Indian Citizenship Act. The act, however, did not ensure voting rights or lift government restrictions on Indian lands or BIA control over reservations.
In 1926, Zitkala-Sa founded the National Council of American Indians, serving as its president. She advocated for Native American citizenship rights, better educational opportunities, improved healthcare, and cultural preservation. Her investigative work on land frauds targeting Native Americans led to her appointment as an adviser to the U.S. government’s Meriam Commission in 1928, whose findings prompted significant reforms.
She spent her remaining ears trying to ensure the protections promised by citizenship did in fact apply. Zitkala-Sa remained a dedicated advocate for Native American rights until her death on January 26, 1938.
Her legacy endures through her contributions as a writer, educator, activist, sufferagist and musician. Her work continues to inspire generations with her unwavering commitment to her people and her vision for equality and cultural preservation. As already noted, “There had been no doubt about the direction in which I wished to go to spend my energies in a work for the Indian race.”
In 2024, the United States Mint issued the Zitkala-Šá Quarter, the 15th coin in the American Women Quarters Program. The coin commerates her unique contributions to Native American history.
Resource: The United States Mint. The 2024 Zitkála-Šá Quarter is the 15th coin in the American Women QuartersTM Program. Zitkála-Šá was a writer, composer, educator, and political activist for Native American rights. Her advocacy led to the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, which granted American Indians U.S. citizenship while maintaining their tribal standing.
Red Bird Sings: The Story of Zitkála-Šá by Gina Capaldi and Q.L. Pearce. Kelly’s Classroom Online shares this lesson plan based on the book of this title. (Grades 6-8)
American Indian Stories by Zitkála-Šá Gertrude (Simmons) Bonnin. This model teaching unit for Secondary Level Language Arts is an Indian Education for All Unit by the Montana Office of Public Instruction. A detailed weeks-long plan, it includes a day-by-day plan with suggestions for workshops and supplemental reading on American Indian Stories.
PBS Video Series on Zitkála-Šá with Support Materials and Teaching Tips.
Zitkála-Šá: Trailblazing American Indian Composer and Writer. Zitkála-Šá co-composed and wrote the libretto for the first American Indian opera and co-founded the National Council of American Indian
Zitkála-Šá | Discovering New York Suffrage Stories. Learn about Zitkála-Šá, a prominent Dakota suffragist who advocated for Native American and women’s rights. Then, review the background reading and vocabulary to deepen students' understanding. Use the provided questions to lead a classroom discussion. (Grades 3-5, 6-8)
Zitkála-Šá | Unladylike2020. Learn about Zitkála-Šá, also known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, a Yankton Sioux author, composer, and indigenous rights activist in this video from the Unladylike2020 series.