Charidy Kyslinger

November 26, 2001

The Struggles of Native Americans in a White Society

There is much to be learned when researching the topic of Native Americans. I wanted to focus my research on the history of Native American writers and their struggle in writing for a non-Native American society. I wanted to learn how many Native American writers have succeeded in creating stories and narratives of their oral history from past to present.

I am specifically focusing on one well-known writer during the early 1900s, Zitkala-Sa. I wanted to get a better appreciation of the struggles she went through trying to live in two separate worlds that were constantly in conflict with one another. I wanted to better understand the person that she was and the struggle of assimilating and resisting the very different cultures in which she was constantly moving in and out of in search of her true self. I also wanted to discover if she ever found her true self or if she constantly lived in a state of ambivalence, neither fully accepting one culture or the other.

I also learned that I have Cherokee ancestors and I wanted to learn more about them and the life they led. Upon researching I was unable to learn a lot about them specifically and widened my research to the Creek Indian nation of which they were members. I wanted to learn what it means to be a Creek Indian, where they were located and the struggles they faced. In researching the Creek Indians, I hope to discover a small piece of my heritage.

"Native American literature continues to evolve and change. But the characteristics that define Native American literature—its vital role in publicizing the concerns of Native American communities and nations, its contemplation of identity, its portrayal of complex tribal histories, and its steadfast belief in diverse Native American traditions—will assuredly be present in the future" (6).

Oral Tradition (page 1)

Native American literature originates in the oral history of the Native American People. For Native American’s, the spoken word is the most important method of communication. They hold it as a sacred tradition for the purpose of telling their history, legends, and performing ceremonies and religious rituals. It is believed that "thoughts have creative power, and the spoken word, as the physical expression of thought, is scared" (1).

Written Literature (pages 2-5)

Before the Europeans came, Native Americans used pictographs to supplement the oral language. They created symbols or pictures to represent and record important events and rituals. During the 1600s, when many Europeans arrived, many tribes learned and used the European writing system to communicate with the colonizers. A Cherokee man by the name of Sequoya understood the importance of written language and developed an original written form of the Cherokee language.

During the 1700s and the 1800s, began writing about the history of their tribe. Many saw the chance to educate non-Native Americans on the beliefs and culture in hopes of coming to an understanding of one another. Most of the works during this time period were religious sermons and protest pieces. Many Native Americans had converted to Christianity and devoted their time writing about the poor treatment of Native Americans and how it was a contradiction to Christian beliefs. Writers such as, Samson Occom (1772) and William Apess (1835) wrote many sermons protesting the discrimination of Native Americans. In the sermons, the writers also addressed the issue of the introduction and damaging effects of alcohol. Also, many Native American newspapers were published during this time period. Some of which were the Cherokee Phoenix, first published in 1828, the Cherokee Advocate, first published in 1844, and Copway’s American Indian.

During the 1900s and 2000s, the style of writing began to change. Much of this was due to the education of Native Americans in government run boarding schools. Attending these schools exposed Native Americans to many different genres and styles of writing. Their audience also evolved. Not only were Native Americans writing for non-Native Americans, as was done in the past, but they began writing for the benefit of a Native American audience. Writing was also used to make political statements. During the early 1900s, one of the most prominent voices of Native Americans’ rights was Zitkala-Sa. She fought for the rights of Native Americans and published many essays and short stories in the most well known journals of her time. Other recognized political writers, such as Will Rogers and Alexander Posey, used satire and humor to express their beliefs. During the 1930s, John Joseph Matthews and D’Archy McNickie wrote to convey that the only way that the Native American culture would survive is if they fought against assimilating to the mainstream society. During the 1950s and early1960s, little Native American literature was published due to the fact that the political climate at the time was hostile to tribal traditions. This changed in the mid to late 1960s when political movements such as the Red Power Movement reopened the doors for Native American writers. The Red Power emphasized " developing pride in one’s self, sustaining traditional Native American cultures and lands, and supporting Native Americans rights in the struggles of Native American communities with the government" (4). Today, many Native American writers explore the theme of the Native American Identity. Two of the most well known writers of today are Sherman Alexie and Susan Power. In their works, they explore the issues faced by Native Americans today.

Zitkala-Sa, born as Gertrude Simmons, lived the constant struggle of living in two separate worlds, of which neither would fully welcome her. Born in 1876 on the Yankton Reservation in South Dakota, Gertrude lived the life of a Native American until she was eight years old. Her mother, Ellen Tate Iyohinwin (She Reaches for the Wind), was a full-blooded Sioux and her father Felker, was a white man who abandoned his family before his daughter was born. Her mother remarried to John Haysting Simmons, who gave Gertrude his last name (kstrom).

As a young girl, she enjoyed the life on the reservation. But her innocent life would be shattered the minute that she entered White’s Manual Institute in Wabash, Indiana. There her Indian heritage was brutally stripped from her. She and others were forced to give up their native ways such as their language, their customs and their beliefs. She writes of the lose of her braids as loosing herself.

At the age of eleven, she returned home to find that she no longer belonged on the reservation either. Upon her return, she discovered that she did not completely fit into the ways of her people now that she was educated. Her mother no longer understood the daughter that could read and write for she had prepared her to be a traditional Yankton woman. She taught her where to find the wild turnips, cherries and plums and how to preserve meat and fruit. She also showed her the art of beadwork (Rappaport 21). The two lived in separate worlds from then on; never fully able to go back to the loving mother-daughter relationship they once embraced (Zitkala-Sa, AIS xi).

Four years after leaving White’s, She returned to school to finish her studies. She was an exceptional student who has in love with learning. During this time she learned from her Quaker teachers of the slave uprisings. She found that her people were not the only ones to fighting for freedom. She learned that women were at the forefront of the abolitionist movement, which proved that women do have a voice to be heard (Rappaport 57). At seventeen, Gertrude and another Indian student were sent to South Dakota to recruit more Native American children to come to White’s. During one trip, she successfully brought twenty-nine children form the Pine Ridge Reservation. Her schooling had "‘successfully killed the Indian’ in her that she now served as the wasicun’s agent, separating Indian children from their parents" Rappaport 57). On June 28, 1895, at the age of nineteen, Gertrude spoke to her fellow graduates about the inequality of women. "Half of humanity cannot rise while the other half is in subjugation…When women are kept down, men must necessarily occupy the same level" (Rappaport 58). The Wabash Times called her speech "a masterpiece that has never been surpassed in eloquence or literary perfection by any girl in this country" (Rappaport 58).

She then enrolled in Santee Normal Training School, which was close to home. Here she felt she was not reaching her full potential. A Quaker woman offered to pay her tuition at Earlham College in Indiana and Gertrude accepted. There her writing began to flourish. She won many scholastic honors for writing, oratory and was published in the Santee Agency newspaper. All of this did not come without its share of heartache.

She was full of hatred and waited earnestly as they handed out the awards. She won. Feeling triumphant she writes "the evil spirit laughed within me when the white flag dropped out of sight, and the hands which hurled it hung limp in defeat" (Zitkala –Sa, AIS 79-80). Shortly afterward she would have to leave school due to an illness, which may have been malaria

In 1899, she began teaching at the Carlisle Indian School. The founder, Army officer Richard Henry Pratt, incorporated the mottos "From savagery to civilization" and "We must kill the savage to save the man" into the mission of the school (kstrom). He ran the school has if it were a military school and used the students as cheap slave labor. During this time Gertrude, began to see the school’s true color.

Continually living with the injustices taken place at Carlisle, Gertrude tried to become indifferent to them. "I wished my heart’s burdens would turn me to unfeeling stone. But alive, in my tomb, I was destitute" (Zitkala-Sa, AIS 97).

Eventfully, she was able to leave the place that left her feeling dead to be reborn in what she loved. She was granted a scholarship to the Boston Conservatory for Music for her musical talent with the violin. She enjoyed her time in Boston. She performed in concerts and attended lectures discussing the latest books and politics. It is said that music was her one true love but her ambition to create a decent life for her people did not allow her to follow her dream for long.

Eventually, the anger would return and she could no longer live the life of a white person. "Indian culture was not inferior to white culture; in many ways she believed it was superior" (Rappaport 83). She knew that there was many more Native Americans who had suffered the constant battle of assimilating and resisting the white culture just as she had her entire life. "The lecture platform and pen were the new weapons. She would use the language that had been forced upon her to attack the very institutions that had imposed it" (Rappaport 84). Starting in January 1900, she was no longer Gertrude Simmons. She re-named herself Zitkala-Sa, which means red bird. She was no longer ambivalent to which life she wanted to live. She had finally come to the realization that her life should be spent protecting her people.

She began writing more and returned home to her mother. There she met Raymond Bonnin, a Yankton from her reservation, and was married on August 10, 1902. He was offered a position with the Indian Service, so they moved to Utah. There they both worked very hard to give the Native American people a voice. They dictated letters and wrote government officials of the injustices being done. They collaborated on pending treaties. She also gave birth to their son, Raymond Ohiya. Through all the hard work, Zitkala-Sa and Composer, William Hanson, wrote The Sun Dance, an Indian opera. One critic wrote that its success was due to the fact that it was a "sympathetic portrayal of the real Indian in a conscientious attempt to delineate the manners, customs, the dress, the religious ideals…in short, the life of a noble people too little understood" (Zitkala-Sa, AIS xiv).

In 1916, the couple moved to Washington so that Zitkala-Sa could accept the position as secretary of the Society of American Indians. She became a lobbyist rallying for equal rights for Native Americans. In 1918, she sat before senate subcommittees fighting for equality while ironically her husband was off fighting in World War I for the country that would not accept him (Rappaport 131). In 1924, Congress granted American Indians citizenship. Zitkala-Sa and Raymond continued fighting for land rights and financial claims. She continued speaking across the country educating Native Americans of their rights (Zitkala Sa, D&T xxi).

She never stopped fighting for what she believed in even during her last years of life, which were full of hardships and poverty. Her son’s diabetes would take its toll forcing him and his family to move in with Zitkala-Sa and Raymond. Eventually, she also became ill and died on January 26, 1938 at the age of 62. She left behind many legacies. "As an author, she transcribed oral tradition and experience, fiercely guarding her Indian identity and defying the aims of assimilist historical injustices with an emotional rhetoric that enchanted sympathetic readers and audiences" (Zitkala S, D&T xxiii).

Zitkala-Sa. American Indian Stories. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1921.

---.Dreams and Thunder. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2001.

Rapport, Doreen. The Flight of Red Bird: The Life of Zitkla-Sa. New York: Dial Books, 1997.

While speaking to my grandmother about the project, I learned that my great grandparents were of the Cherokee nation. I wanted to learn more about them and the life they led but due to the many generations their story has been lost. I was able to come away with a few facts about them. Sarah Brown, my great grandmother was born to a Native American woman and a white doctor. She was born in Alabama, married and moved to mountains in Tennessee, and settled in north Texas near Waco. As an adult, she claimed to be Irish never wanting to admit that she was half Native American but her appearance would tell the truth. She had the long, silky black hair, which she wore in a bun. She had beautifully high cheekbones that accentuated the dark eyes. Her thin lips were always quick to smile. No, she could not fool anyone in believing that she was just Irish. She was the mother of twelve children, 6 of which she outlived.

Her husband, William Robert Ritchie, was also born in Alabama. His mother was white and his father was Native American. He had a sixth grade education and once married, he supported his family as a farmer. Unlike his wife, he was very proud of his ancestry. He died of gangrene caused by a cut in the leg while working. His widowed died about twenty years after him at the age of 81.

The couple was a member of the Creek Indians Association. The Creek Indians were originally settled in what is now considered the southeastern United States. They permitted the American government the right to create horse trails through their lands, which eventually led to the settlement of white pioneers. This led to the struggle between those that assimilated to the white ways in search of peace and those that refused to give up their ways. This struggle led to the Creek War of 1813-1814, which was part of the War of 1812. During the war, they were supported by Spain and England. In the end, they were forced to sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson that required them to give up forty thousand square miles of land to the United States in exchange for land in the Indian Territory now known as Oklahoma.

Corkran, David H. The Creek Frontier: 1540-1783. Norman: University of Oklahoma

Press,1967.

Alabama Department of Archives & History. 13 July 2001.

 Conclusion

Through my research I have learned a great deal about the struggles of Native Americans in fighting for the survival of their values, beliefs, rituals and customs. Being raised in a white, middle class family, I have never had to fight for my very existence. It is unimaginable to me to think of watching as my family is ripped away, my home stolen, and the core of my existence being squashed by someone else’s beliefs. I now have a better appreciation for the struggle that Native Americans have in this world and am saddened by the lose of a people so in tune with the gentleness of nature. It has made me imagine of how our lives would be different if we had embraced their simple way of life instead of murdering it.

Through the writings by and research on Zitkala-Sa, I was able to have a glimpse of the pain, frustration, anger and confusion that so many Native Americans faced. My research in following the life of Zitkala-Sa, I was able to understand on a deeper level the struggles of Native Americans instead of just seeing the narrow glimpse that is taught in school. I have a tremendous respect for who she was and the contributions she made. Her life has shown me the true meaning of loosing yourself and the struggle one must go through to be reborn as the person you were suppose to be all along.

I enjoyed reading her books and biographies because it does not give the events in a fictitious setting. I was able to appreciate her life and her causes more because she was a real person. The struggles she had within in herself and others were not imagined by some author but was the life she led.

Researching the history of American Indian literature, also gave me an insight to the struggles and purpose of many writers. It allowed me to see the evolution of Native American literature from their oral language to written language. In the beginning, many just wanted to write to capture who they were as a people and their customs and beliefs. It then evolved into the education of non-Native Americans in that they are not what society has portrayed them to be but someone else entirely. Today, many Native Americans are writing for the enjoyment of Native Americans. I found it very interesting how many Native Americans, such as Zitkala-Sa, used the language that was forced on them to challenge the very same people later.

In researching my family history, I was left disappointed. The only relative that knew detailed information about my great grandparents was unable to speak to me. In learning the little that I did and researching the Creek Indians has left me with something else. While speaking to my grandmother, I was able to get a glimpse of a part of me that I had not known. I was able to listen to stories of my grandmother’s childhood and funny mishaps that happened in the family. It gave me yet another chance to speak with my grandmother and cherish the time that we have.

Overall the project has been one of enlightenment. I was able to learn of a people that no longer exist in our society the way they did over a hundred years ago. I am now able to better appreciate the true meaning of life and oneness with nature and how lucky I am not to have to fight for my very existence.