Zitkala-Ša means "Red Bird" in the native language of the Dakota Sioux. An accomplished musician, writer, and political activist, Zitkala-Ša lived her life passionately and, in a way, with as much song as her name implies.
Zitkala-Ša's English name was Gertrude Simmons. She was born on February 22, 1876 on the Yankton Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Raised by her mother, Ellen Simmons, whose Dakota name, Taté Iyòhiwin, means "Reaches for the Wind," Zitkala-Ša lived happily on the Yankton Reservation until she was eight years old. She recounts in her narrative Impressions of an Indian Childhood that at the age of eight, two Quaker missionaries came to her village to recruit children to go east with them to attend White's Manual Labor Institute in Wabash, Indiana. The missionary school was founded by Josiah White for "poor children, white, colored, and Indian."
Eager to see more of the world, Zitkala-Ša talked her mother into letting her go to Indiana with the missionaries. In her writing, she expressed the paradox of emotions she felt at White's Manual Labor Institute. She described the pain, fear and shame of being forced to have her long hair cut short and her Sioux identity taken away. These feelings were juxtaposed with the great joy she experienced in learning to read, write, and play music. She excelled at the violin and even began to teach music at White's during her later years as a student.
After graduating, Zitkala-Ša accepted a scholarship to Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. From Earlham College she went on to study violin at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Throughout her formal education, she experienced tension between her cultural identity as a Dakota Sioux and that of the dominant white culture into which she had entered.
In 1899, she took a position teaching music at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. It was at this time that she adopted her Dakota Sioux name, Zitkala-Ša, under which she began publishing articles in Atlantic Monthly and Harper's Monthly. The Carlisle Indian Industrial School had been founded by Colonel Richard Henry Pratt whose modus operandi was to "kill the Indian to save the man." Not surprisingly, Zitkala-Ša found herself at odds with Colonel Pratt and the dogma of Carlisle Indian Industrial School. She was soon dismissed from her position because of a short story she wrote called "Soft-Hearted Sioux," which criticized the curriculum of assimilation taught by schools like White's and Carlisle. The experience solidified her resolve to make advocacy for the rights of all Native Americans her life's work even though music was her first love.
In 1901, Zitkala-Ša returned home to the Yankton Indian Reservation to care for her aging mother. While back on the reservation she began to put together a collection of American Indian stories from her childhood. Her collection was published that same year by Boston publisher Ginn and Company as Old Indian Legends. Among the fans of Old Indian Legends was Helen Keller who sent a letter to Zitkala-Ša in 1919 thanking her for the book and saying, "Your tales of birds, beast, tree and spirit can not but hold captive the hearts of all children. They will kindle in their young minds that eternal wonder which creates poetry and keeps life fresh and eager."
In order to stay close to her mother, Zitkala-Ša took a job as a clerk with the Bureau of Indian Affairs at the nearby Standing Rock Indian Reservation. It was there that she met Raymond Bonnin, a fellow employee who was half Dakota Sioux. The two married on May 9, 1902 and were soon reassigned to the Uintah-Ouray reservation in Utah where they worked for fourteen years. The couple had one son, Alfred Ohiya Bonnin, whom they called Ohiya, which means "Winner."
During their time on the Uintah-Ouray reservation, Zitkala-Ša collaborated with composer William F. Hanson who was teaching at Brigham Young University. Together, they wrote the first American Indian opera. The Sun Dance debuted in Utah in 1913 to much local acclaim. Years later, the opera regained traction when it came to Broadway. In 1938, it was performed by the New York Light Opera Guild at The Broadway Theatre.
The Bonnins began to find fault with the Bureau of Indian affairs where Raymond was still employed. Their open criticism of the Bureau grew and soon Raymond was dismissed.
In 1916, the couple relocated to Washington D.C. where Zitkala-Ša devoted herself to full-time political activism on behalf of Native Americans. She was a member of the Society of American Indians (SAI), a group which advocated for the preservation of Native American culture and full citizenship for all indigenous peoples. In Washington, she wrote for and edited SAI's journal, American Indian Magazine. She also traveled around the country lecturing on behalf of SAI, and her work with them eventually helped lead to the 1924 passage of the Indian Citizenship Act. In 1926 she founded the National Council of American Indians and served as president until her death in 1938.
Zitkala-Ša was one of the twentieth century's most eloquent and effective agents of change. She died on January 26, 1938 at the age of sixty-one, but the ringing of her passionate birdsong is still heard through her legacy of music, writing, and advocacy. She is buried as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin beside her husband Raymond Bonnin, who served as a Captain in the United States Army during World War I, in Arlington National Cemetery.
