Northern Paiute educator, interpreter, and writer, born near Humboldt Lake, Nevada, USA. She served often as an interpreter with the US Army, looking to it for fair treatment for Indians and urging her people to keep the peace. She worked tirelessly, although ultimately unsuccessfully, for a permanent Paiute reservation. In 1884 she published Life Among the Paiutes.
Sarah Winnemucca (born Thocmentony, Paiute: Shell Flower) (ca.
Sarah was a person of two worlds. Despite this, Sarah has received much positive attention recently for her activism, and in 2005 a statue of her was added to the National Statuary Hall Collection in the U.S. Capitol.
Early life
Born "somewhere near 1844" at the Humboldt Sink in what is now western Nevada, Sarah Winnemucca was the daughter of Chief Winnemucca (Poito). Although she claimed that her father was chief of all the Northern Paiute (and she was therefore often called the "Paiute Princess" by the press), the Paiute had no centralized leadership and her father, though influential, was the leader of a small band.
Sarah's grandfather, Truckee (meaning "good" in the Paiute language), was enthusiastically friendly towards white people. Although Sarah was initially terrified of white people, her grandfather took her with him on a trip to the Sacramento area (a trip her father refused to make), and later placed her in the household of William Ormsby of Carson City, Nevada to be educated. Sarah Winnemucca soon became one of very few Paiutes in Nevada able to read and write English.
William Ormsby was later killed in action at the first battle of the Pyramid Lake War when the militia force he led was annihilated by a Paiute force lead by Sarah's cousin Numaga. Sarah's book tells how her brother Natchez unsuccessfully tried to save Ormsby by faking his death.
After the war, Sarah's family moved to the Malheur Reservation which was designated a reservation for the Northern Paiute and Bannock by a series of Executive Orders issued by President Ulysses S. Sarah taught in a local school and acted as interpreter for Indian Agent Samuel Parrish.
Bannock War
After four years, Parrish was replaced by agent William Rinehart. Sarah's book tells how the Indian Agent sold many of the supplies intended for the people to local whites. Sarah claims in her book that her family and several other Paiute families were held hostage by the Bannock during the war.
During the Bannock War, Sarah worked as a translator for the U.S. Army. Sarah was highly regarded by the officers she worked for, and her book includes letters of recommendation from several of them. Sarah also thought highly of those officers, and advocated military administration of the reservations. by diamond
Yakima Reservation
Following the Bannock War, the Northern Paiute bands she was associated with were deemed untrustworthy and forced to march to the Yakama Indian Reservation (in Washington Territory), where they endured great deprivation. Sarah went there with them to serve as a translator, although as she had a job she was not required to live on a reservation. American Indians of the Pacific Northwest
Lectures and writing
While lecturing in San Francisco, California, Sarah met and married Lewis H. In 1883, they traveled east where Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins delivered nearly three hundred lectures. Sarah's husband supported his wife's efforts by gathering material for the book at the Library of Congress.
After returning to Nevada, Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins built a school for Indian children which was to promote the Indian lifestyle and language. Despite a bequest from Mary Peabody Mann and efforts to turn the school into a technical training center, Sarah's funds were depleted by the time of her husband's death in 1887, and she spent the last four years of her life retired from public activity.
Commemorations
In 2005, Sarah Winnemucca's statue was added to the National Statuary Hall Collection in the U.S. Capitol by the state of Nevada.
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