<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: "Paiute Princess" Writes Her Own Page In History
Review: Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins was the daughter of Northern Paiute Chief Winnemucca. Edited by Mrs. Horace Mann,Sarah Winnemucca provides more than a brief glance into the lives of the Northern Paiutes living on the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation during the late 1800s. Winnemucca gives her voice to the plight of her people as they struggle to survive the effects of government Indian policy in the Western United States.Sarah Winnemucca's autobiography enables the reader to examine how the US reservation system, assimilation policy and the BIA failed to provide adequately for the Paiute people. The author provides the reader with an opportunity to experience the feelings of hope and despair of the Paiute people during the late 1870s and 1880s. Her examples of the corruption by white settlers and Indian agents provides reasonable and believable evidence of what life was like for Sarah Winnemucca and her Paiute family. Sarah Winnemucca's memories are bitter-sweet. She relates her actions to help not only her own people but the US army during the Indian wars of that era, including the Bannock War. Marrying US Army soldier Lewis Hopkins in the early 1880s, her story also includes events during their marriage. An advocat for her people, Sarah traveled to Washington, D. C. to speak with the President, and she traveled coast-to-coast publicly speaking about the plight of her people as well as her life as a young Paiute woman. Her daring escapades as an Army scout and participant in several Indian wars further illustrate her strength as a Native woman. This book, written in Sarah Winnemucca's voice, is both a powerful and moving example of the active role some women played in the history of the west. I found her memories to reflect a side of history often overlooked by other authors, and I highly recommend her work.
<< 1 >>
| 
