Zitkala-Ša

Ruth Spack (Bentley College)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

Zitkala-Ša, née Gertrude Simmons, was a writer, musician, journal editor, and Native rights activist in the early twentieth century. From the time she began writing, Zitkala-Ša contested European American reform agendas that would have the effect of erasing Native ways of knowing from the American cultural and intellectual landscape. Born at the Yankton Agency in Dakota Territory in 1876, Zitkala-Ša was the daughter of a Yankton Sioux woman and a European American trader who abandoned the family before her birth. At age eight, after attending a Presbyterian bilingual day school on the reservation, Zitkala-Ša entered an English-only Quaker boarding school, White’s Indiana Manual Labor Institute, which received government funding to educate Native American students. Between her two…

1859 words

Citation: Spack, Ruth. "Zitkala-Ša". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 July 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12939, accessed 19 March 2024.]

12939 Zitkala-Ša 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.