This was the first time I had read anything by the famed indigenous author, Zitkala-Sa. This book contained a collection of her biographical snapshots and stories of youth, folk tales, essays, and poetry. They are eloquent, profound, and deeply moving. She had raw power with her words and when you read this book, the imagery it conveys about growing up at the turn of the century on a reservation and what it means to be indigenous is profound. Essential reading for Native American scholars. ( )

At the turn of the 20th Century, Zitkala-Sa's autobiographical writings were serialized in Atlantic Monthly. Twenty years later the compositions were published in a collection called American Indian Stories (1921), a compendium of childhood stories, allegorical fiction, and an essay. This work addresses long-standing issues for American Indians' dilemmas with assimilation. The stories are still in print in a Penguin Classics Paperback (ISBN 0142437093).

American Indian Stories is believed to be the first literary work by a Native-American woman created without the mediation of a non-Native interpreter, collaborator, editor, interpreter, or ethnographer.

Zitkala-Sa expresses deep conflicts between tradition and assimilation, literature and politics, Native-American religion and Christianity. In her chapter on "Why I Am a Pagan" the author explains her religious beliefs. This chapter, along with a chapter entitled "The Big Red Apples," make a case against traditional Christianity. From her later writings, we learn that she opposed both the Native-American Peyote religion and Christianity while retaining her spirituality and faith in the Great Spirit.

Zitkala-Sa's collection of autobiographical essays and short stories details the progression of her alienation from her Dakota Sioux people that resulted from her missionary schooling. At the same time, she gives voice to her disillusionment with the harshness of American-Indian boarding schools and with the corruption of government institutions seemingly established to help Native-Americans. The book concludes with an essay called "America's Indian Problem" which tells about hypocritical Congressional reports that were never published.

About the Author. Zitkala-Sa (1876-1938) was born a Dakota Sioux on the Yankton Reservation of South Dakota. Born Gertrude Simmons, she later called herself Zitkala-Sa, her pen-name, which means "Red Bird" in the Lakota language. She continued to use both names throughout her life. For example, she used her Lakota name, Zitkala-Sa, as an artist and writer and when appearing in public. She used her English name, Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, in legal matters and in letters to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Her father was a white man named Felker, about whom little is known. Her mother was Ellen Tate Iyohinwin ("She Reaches for the Wind") Simmons, a full-blooded Sioux. After Felker deserted his Indian family, his wife remarried John Haysting Simmons, who gave his name to Gertrude.

Gertrude was raised in a tepee at a reservation on the Missouri River until she was 8 when she went to a Quaker missionary boarding school for Indians, White's Manual Institute, in Wabash, Indiana.

She attended Earlham College from 1895 to 1897. While attending Earlham, she entered an oratorical contest at the college and won first place. In 1896, she entered the Indiana State Oratorical Contest as the representative from Earlham College. She won 2nd place in the statewide competition.

She later attended the Boston Conservatory of Music in Massachusetts where her musical talent won her a scholarship. Music was Bonin's real love. At college, Bonnin won prizes for violin and piano performances as well as for oratory and singing.

For a while, Bonnin taught at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School (CIIS) in Pennsylvania. As an accomplished violinist, she went to Paris in 1900 with CIIS as violin soloist for the Paris Exposition.

In 1902, during a period when Zitkala-Sa had returned to her reservation, she met and married Captain Raymond Bonnin, a mixed-race Nakota Indian. An Army captain, he worked with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). They had one son named Ohiya.

With William F. Hanson, Zitkala-Sa co-composed the first American Indian Grand Opera, The Sun Dance, based on Ute and Sioux themes, which premiered in 1913. She wrote the libretto and songs, and contributed substantially to the music, which she played for Hanson on her violin while he scored it. The creation was treasured by a few Native Americans but, since 1938, the opera has gone unnoticed. Neither before nor since has there been an opera written by a Native-American. Although she once wrote that music was her real love, her life spent working for her Native-American people did not permit her to follow this love.

Determined, controversial, and visionary, Bonnin creatively worked to bridge the gap between her own culture and mainstream American society. She became an advocate for Native rights on a national level. She challenged long-standing beliefs that the white man's culture is good and Native-Americans are sinful savages.

Bonnin is credited with being instrumental in the passage of legislation leading to Native-Americans being given citizenship in the United States of America. She was a vocal champion for the right of women to vote.

She founded the National Council of American Indians in 1926. She remained active in the Native-American movement for the rest of her life.

Bonnin died in 1938. She is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Her tombstone is marked "Zitkala-Sa of the Sioux Nation," and is also inscribed with a picture of a tepee.

Trivia. Zitkala-Sa was born in 1876, the same year as the momentous Battle of the Little Bighorn (Custer's Last Stand). This battle was the most famous action of the Great Sioux War of 1876-77 and was a remarkable victory for the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne, led by Sitting Bull. The U.S. Seventh Cavalry, including a column of 700 men led by George Armstrong Custer, was defeated.

More Trivia. The original publication of American Indian Stories (1921) was in the year following the passage of the 19th Amendment for which Bonnin had worked so hard. She felt strongly that women's suffrage would be the final solution to the Native-American dilemma. ( )