Spring 2025
Sarah Winnemucca was not only a prominent early Indigenous activist but also one of the first women to take on that role. Born in 1844, her Paiute people had seen very little disturbance from Europeans. As she grew up, she witnessed the decline of Paiute culture, culminating with her people’s forced relocation to a reservation in 1860. The nomadic Paiutes were forced into a sedentary lifestyle by the reservation system, a drastic change that left them unable to support themselves. They relied heavily on government rations and support, and found themselves frequent victims of the greed of the government agents meant to take care of them. This turbulent situation meant that Winnemucca’s teen years and middle education were unconventional. She spent some time at a white Catholic school, but was soon asked to leave due to the discomfort of the families of her white peers. She then briefly lived with a white family, allowing her to perfect her knowledge of English. This bilinguality led her to work as an interpreter between white Americans and Paiutes. Through this role she became involved in politics and ultimately became known as a voice of resistance for the Paiutes, acting as a mediator, translator, author, lecturer, and activist.
Winnemucca was the first Indigenous woman in what is now the United States to publish a book, a feat that she is most remembered for. Her book, Life among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims, was published in 1883, and was intended for a white audience. Her writing was inspired by the many lectures she had given and would continue to give in the following years—Winnemucca gave more than 400 lectures across the United States and Europe. She was a highly effective speaker and storyteller, and in both her lectures and writing she detailed the abuses her people had suffered and the brutality, corruption, and greed of the Indian agents: “Indian people will never be civilized, if you keep on sending us such agents as have been sent to us year after year, who do nothing but fill their pockets.” Her work successfully educated and inspired sympathy in white readers, largely due to her strategic ability to play into their preconceived notions of Indigenous Americans.
Winnemucca is known for her dramatic presentation of herself as an “Indian Princess.” She wore what can only be described as a costume for most of her lectures, and even in her writing presents herself as the perfectly constructed and romanticized Indian. She exploited the stereotypes placed on her to gain the attention of a white audience and then to dismantle that same romanticization in her actual work. By ensuring that her audience’s expectations for an Indigenous woman were at least superficially met, she was able to take advantage of their curiosity to actually educate them. Unfortunately, this same technique that gained her attention during her life has led many current scholars to discount her work in studies of Indigenous resistance. Considered “overly-Christianized,” very little scholarship has been conducted on her work due to her peacemaking, willingness to somewhat assimilate into white culture, and support of the Dawes Allotment Act, a devastating piece of legislation that divided communal Indigenous land into individual lots. In reality, her role as a negotiator and mediator put her into frequent contact with white government officials. Conceding aspects of her own Paiute identity was a way for her to earn their respect in this role. Additionally, her attitude towards the Dawes Act was a response to her disdain for the reservation system and the abuses her people had experienced as a result of it. Winnemucca saw the act as an opportunity for the Paiute people to escape the corruption of reservations and Indian agents, while in actuality it only further harmed Indigenous Americans by reducing their land and forcing their communities apart.
Sarah’s teaching did not end with the education of an ignorant white audience. She also worked as a teacher for Indigenous students, first working in government run institutions and later opening her own. Her school was very successful, offering her students an Anglicised education and simultaneously upholding Paiute cultural values. She received praise for her work as an educator by both members of the local community and visitors. Unfortunately, she was forced to shut down her school after only four years due to a lack of government funding.
Winnemucca did many things for her people. Though her voice had no great and violent impact, she inspired an empathy for Indigenous people through her storytelling, an important first step that others were later able to build upon. She fought for the Paiutes in a variety of fields, whether that be education, the world of politics, or as an author. She was confined by her gender and race, but worked gracefully around the “acceptable” spheres for Indigenous women in a way that allowed her to keep the respect of those determined to undermine her. She is an admirable voice of early Indigenous resistance and an unconventional figure in this field.
Works Cited
Calloway, Colin. First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of Native American History. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2024.
Gere, Anne Ruggles. “Indian Heart/White Man’s Head: Native-American Teachers in Indian Schools, 1880-1930.” History of Education Quarterly 45, no. 1 (2005): 38–65. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-5959.2005.tb00021.x.
McClure, Andrew S. “Sarah Winnemucca: [Post]Indian Princess and Voice of the Paiutes.” MELUS 24, no. 2 (1999): 29–51. https://doi.org/10.2307/467698.
