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AUTHORTITLE

Morrow, Mary FrancesSarah Winnemucca. Raintree/Rivi:o American IndianStories Series.

REPORT NO ISBN-0-8172-3402-0PUB DATE 90

NOTE 34p.; Written by scholars and designed to provideyoung students/readers with accurate accounts of thelives of American Indian men and women important inthe history of their tribes. Colored illustrationsmay not reproduce adequately.

PUB TYPE Books (010) Historical Materials (060)

EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage.DESCRIPTORS Activism; American Indian Culture; *American Indian

History; American Indians; Biographies; ChildrensLiterature; *Federal Indian Relationship; *Females;Interpreters; *Leaders; United States History

IDENTIFIERS *Paiute (Tribe); *Winnemucca (Sarah)

ABSTRACTSarah Winnemucca was a full-blood Paiute Indian born

in 1844 in Nevada. The Paiute hunted'and gathered and lived inwigwams constructed of branches, brush, and hides. Sarah'sgrandfather, Captain Truckee, befriended the explorer John C. Fremontand went with him to California. Captain Truckee admired Whitepeople's clothing and houses and, especially, their ability to write.Sarah went with him on his next trip to California. When theyreturned, they found that many of their people had died from disease,as the medicine man had predicted. Although Sarah did not receive agreat deal of formal schooling, she learned to speak English,Spnnish, and two Indian languages. She learned to read and write andcoauthored a book called "Life among the Paiutes: Their Claims andWrongs." She worked as an interpreter, guide, and scout; started aschool for Indians; gave lectures to Whites about Indian life; andfought for justice, a better education, and a better life for herpeople. Contains many illustrations and a timeline of Sarah's life.(TD)

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Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be madefrom the original document.

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To the Reader....The Raintree/Rivilo American Indian Stories series

features the lives of American Indian men and womenimportant in the history of their tribes. Our purpose is toprovide young readers with accurate accounts of the lives ofthese individuals. The stories are written by scholars, includingAmerican Indians.

Indians are as much a part of American life today as theywere one hundred years ago. Even in times past, Indians werenot all the same. Not all of them lived in tepees or wore featherwarbonnets. They were not all warriors. Some did fight againstthe white man, but many befriended him.

Whether patriot or politician, athlete or artist, Arapaho orZuni, the story of each person in this series deserves to be told.Whether the individuals gained distinction on the battlefield orthe playing field, in the courtroom or the classroom, they haveenriched the heritage and history of all Americans. It is hopedthat those who read their stories will realize that many differentpeoples, regardless of culture or color, have played a part inshaping the United States, in making America the great countrythat it is today.

Herman J. ViolaGeneral EditorAuthor of Exploring the Westand other volumes on the Westand American Indians

GENERAL EDITORHerman J. ViolaAuthor of Evp/orini; the West and other llIllmeN on the Wes(and American Indians

MANAGING EDITORRobert M. KvasnickaCoeditor of The Commissioners of Indian A qiiirs, / 977

Coeditor of hulian-tillite Relations: A Persistent Parado.k

MANUSCRIPT EDITORBarbara J. Behm

DESIGNERKathleen A. Hartneu

PRODUCTIONAndrew RupniewskiEileen Rickey

Copyright © 1990 Pinnacle Press, Inc. doing business as RiviloBooks

All rights reserved. No part of this book may he reproduced orutilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical.including photocopying. recording. or by any information storageand retrieval system. without permission in writing from thePublisher. Inquiries should be addressed to Raintree Publishers,310 West Wisconsin Avenue. Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53203.

Library of Congress Number: 89-10533

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 95 94 93 92 91 90

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Morrow, Mary Frances.Sarah Winnemucca.(Raintrec American Indian stories)

Summary: Recounts the lile story of the influential Paiute womanwho fought for justice and a better life for her people.

I. Hopkins. Sarah Winnemucca. 1844-1891Juvenileliterature. 2. Paiute lndiansBiographyJuvenile literature.3. Scouts and scoutingCaliformaBiographyJuveMleliterature. 4. Scouts and scoutingNevadaBiography Juvenileliterature. 5. CaliforniaBiovaphyJuvenile literature.6. NevadaBiographyJuvenile literature. 11. Hopkins. SarahWinnemucca, 1844-1891. 2. Paiute IndiansBiography.3. Indians of North AmericaBiography; I. Title. II. Series.E99.P2H726 1989 979'.00497402 1131 1921 89-10533ISBN 0-8172-3402-0 (lib. hdg.)

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AMERICAN INDIAN STORIES

SARAHWINNEMUC C

Text by Mary Frances MorrowIllustrations by Ken Bronikowski

Raintree PublishersMilwaukee

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Sarah Winnemucca was a courageous full-blood Paiute Indianwho became a well-known spokesperson for Indian rights. Thiswas quite an achievement in a time when few women or Indiansbecame leaders. White people called her Princess Sarah, a titleshe liked because it created interest in her and therefore hercauses. Her Indian name was Thoc-me-tony, which means "Shell

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Flower." She chose the name Sarah when she grew up. Sarah'sfather was Chief Winnemucca. Her grandfather, who wasknown as Captain Truckee, and her brothers also were leadersof their band of Northern Paiutes.

Sarah was born in 1844 in what is today the state of Nevada.Before she was born, very few white people had seen the lakesand mountains of her homeland. Sometimes an occasionalexplorer or trapper would pass through the lands of the NorthernPaiute.

'When Sarah was very young, Captain Truckee befriended theexplorer John C. Fremont and went with him to California.Captain Truckee came to respect many things that he learnedabout white people. He admired their clothing and houses, andhe admired their ability to write. When he returned to Nevada,he persuaded some of his people to go back with him toCalitbrnia. Captain Truckee wanted his people to be friendswith the whites.

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Sarah was afraid of white people when she was little. Paiutechildren were told that the whites were monsters who would killthem. One day the women of her band heard rumors that whitepeople were in the valley. Sarah's mother and aunt snatched uptheir little girls and ran to hide in the hills.

The women decided to hide the girls in the ground. They duga hole and buried Sarah and her cousin so only their facesshowed. Then they covered the children's faces with bushes.

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They warned the little girls not to reveal their hiding places bycrying. The two girls lay in the ground all day, hearts throbbing,hardly daring to breathe. When it was dark, their mothers camefor them. Sarah was so frightened by that terrible experience thatfor many years she would tremble and burst into tears whenevershe thought of it.

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Sarah's home was a wigwam constructed of branches andbrush, which was sometimes covered with hides or bark. Thepeople wore clothing made of skins or twisted strips of rabbit furand wild plant materials. Food was not plentiful, and peopleoften went hungry. Their lives depended upon their being able tomove around to find food. Large game such as antelope, deer,and mountain sheep were already in short supply. The mencaught fish and hunted rabbits. Fish and meat were preserved bydrying them in the sun and wind. The women gathered seeds andground them between big round stones to prepare them forcooking. When summer came, several families moved togetherto the mountains where they gathered pine nuts and stored themfor use during the following winter.

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Sarah grew up surrounded by the interesting sights, sounds,and customs of her people. One especially fascinating person inthe Winnemucca band was the medicine man. He communicatedwith the sacred spirits in a place called Spirit Land. Sarahremembered a message that the medicine man once received. Itwas "Our people will not all die at the hands of our whitebrothers. They will kill a great many of us with their guns, butthey will bring among us a fearful disease that will cause us todie by the hundreds.-

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The Paiutes participated in many sacred ceremonies whichintrigued young Sarah. The antelope charm ceremony wasconducted by her father. It was done to attract antelope thatwere needed to feed the Paiutes. First, Chief Winnemucca wouldhave his people mark out a large circle on the ground with sixmounds of sagebrush and stones. Every morning and everyevening the people would sit around an opening in the circle,smoking a special pipe and passing it around the circle fivetimes to the right. The Northern Paiutes also had a specialmusical instrument, a drum, that was played only in the antelopecharm ceremony. Sarah's father rubbed the drum with a stick tomake an eerie, vibrating sound. He then led the people in singingantelope charm songs.

Each day for five aays, two men carrying torches would run inopposite directions around a herd of antelope. The peoplefollowed the torchbearers but did not let the antelope see them.On the fifth day, the charm was complete, and the antelopewould follow the people into the circle of brush and stay therejust as if a fence enclosed them.

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Captain Truckee eventually returned from California. He satby the fire for days and talked about the white people. He saidwhites were their brothers and were kind to everybody,especially children. He told about their ships that looked likehouses on water. He sang the "Star Spangled Banner" to hispeople. He showed all his people a paper with writing on it thathe called his "rag friend." He said, "This can talk to all ourwhite brothers, and our white sisters, and their children." He saidit could travel like the wind. It could go and talk to whitefamilies and come back and tell what they were doing. Sarahwas very impressed with her grandfather's stories about thewritings of white people.

Sarah and her mother went with Captain Truckee on his nexttrip to California. On the journey, Sarah met white people forthe first time. Once she became very sick with poison oak. Herface swelled up so badly that she could not see. A kind whitewoman put medicine on her face and talked to her. As Sarah gotbetter, the lady visited her and brought giftssweet things to eatand pretty dresses. Sarah began to lose her fear of whites.

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When Sarah and her family returned to Nevada, they foundthat many of their people had died from disease, just as themedicine man had predicted. The women cut off their hair tomourn the dead. The men told her grandfather that the peoplehad died after drinking the water. They thought white peoplehad poisoned the river. Captain Truckee pointed out that if thewhites had poisoned the water, it would also have poisoned thewhite people when they drank it. He said the sickness was somenew, dreadful disease.

Years later in 1858, when Sarah was about fourteen, she andher sister had the opportunity to live with the family of a whitesettler, Major William Ormsby. They lived there for a year,taking care of his little daughter. They learned very quickly tospeak English.

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As more white people moved into the area, hostilities beganbetween the Paiutes and the settlers. When two white men werekilled, the Indians were mistakenly blamed. In retaliation, whitesshot and killed three Indians.

Not long after that incident, Sarah's grandfather died. His lastwish was for Sarah and her sister to attend a mission school inCalifornia. They were at the mission school only three weekswhen parents of white children complained about their childrenhaving to associate with Indians. For that reason, Sarah and hersister were forced to leave. Even though Sarah did not receive agreat deal of formal schooling, she learned to speak English.Spanish, and two Indian languages. She learned to read andwrite, and in 1883 she coauthored a book called Life Among thePaiutes: Their claims and Wrongs.

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In 1860, Major Ormsby was killed in a war between theIndians and whites. A truce was declared and Sarah's peoplewere forced to settle on the Pyramid Lake Reservation. At firstonly Paiutes lived ,.)n the Indian land, but after a railroad was cutthrough in 1867, whites moved in. When the whites took thebest land and a lake from the Indians, trouble began. Indianswere accused of stealing cattle, and soldiers hunted down theIndians and killed many of them.

The government appointed an agent to be in charge of thereservation Indians. He was supposed to issue food and clothingto the Indians, but they never received enough supplies. TheIndians accused the agent of holding back the goods in order tosell them and get rich himself. Since Sarah could speak Englishand Indian languages, she often served as an interpreter. TheIndians asked her to tell the government that they were notreceiving their supplies.

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Sarah went to see General John Schofield in San Francisco.She told him her people were not given seeds to plant for cropsand were not shown how to farm, although they were expectedto raise their own food. She said the teachers in the school didnot teach the children to read and write or to speak English. Shesaid they had no lumber for houses, no ammunition to hunt forgame, and no material for clothing. The Indians had been toldthat the land was not really theirs and that they had to pay for itsuse. She said the agents lied to reporters, telling them aboutbuildings and bridges that were supposedly there but were neverreally built.

The general advised Sarah to contact Senator John P. Jones atGold Hill, Nevada. Senator Jones listened to Sarah and gave hera gold piece, but he did nothing else to help her people.

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In 1875, Sarah was asked to serve as an interpreter at theMalheur Reservation in Oregon. This reservation had been setaside in 1867, and it became the Paiutes' new home. The agent,Sam B. Parrish, was a good man who treated the Indian peoplefairly. He taught them how to dig irrigation ditches for theirfields and how to build fences. He set up a school where all theIndian children were taught to read and the young boys weretaught to be blacksmiths and carpenters. He helped the Indiansplant potatoes, turnips, and watermelons. He gave the peopleflour, beef, and beans. He gave them ammunition for hunting.He paid the people a fair wage for their work.

The Indians were very happy with Agent Parrish, but then thegovernment decided to change agents. The agent who arrived in1876 was William V. Rinehart. He had little sympathy for theIndians or their needs. The Indians disliked him intensely, andthey disapproved of his policies. Rinehart told them that if theydid not like what he was doing, they could leave. The Indians allleft the reservation.

Things got worse for the Indians. In June 1878, the Bannocks,a neighboring tribe, went on the warpath. They were starvingand unable to support themselves. They persuaded the war chiefEgan and some other Paiutes to join them, and these men forcedSarah's father to go on the warpath also.

The captain of the United States Army Cavalry wanted tocontact Chief Winnemucca to ask him not to join the hostileIndians, but Sarah's father and others were already being heldprisoner by the Bannocks. No one would deliver a message tohim because they were afraid to go into the Bannocks' territory.Finally, Sarah agreed to take the message. She followed theBannocks' trail for many miles. She sneaked into the camp a tnight, crawling on her hands and knees. She told her father thatthe army would help him and his people if they would leave theBannocks.

The women left the camp as if they were searching forfirewood. Once they had made their way out of camp, theyescaped. Chief Winnemucca told several of the men to gethorses. The Bannocks heard the commotion and began chasingthe men. Sarah and her father and his people all escaped. Amonth later, the army defeated the Bannocks and a few Paiutesin battle. The captured Indians were forced onto the YakirnaReservation in the Washington Territory. Even Paiutes who hadnot fought were made to live on the reservation.

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During the winter of 1879-1880, Sarah, her father, herbrother, and a few others traveled to Washington, D.C., to meetPresident Rutherford B. Hayes and Secretary of the Interior CarlSchurz. Schurz was responsible for administering thegovernment's Indian policy. Sarah told him all about theBannock War. Because only a few Paiutes had joined thefighting, she said it was unfair that so many were separated fromtheir families. She wanted Schurz to remove Agent Rinehart andpermit the Paiutes to move to the Malheur Reservation, whichthey considered home.

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Before Sarah left Washington, D.C., Schurz gave her a lettersaying that all nonhostile Paiutes could move to the MalheurReservation if they wanted to. Sarah was very happy andconsidered her mission a success.

The agent at Yakima refused to let the Paiutes go to theMalheur Reservation because they did not have the money tobuy the clothing, horses, and supplies they needed for the trip.He said they would suffer and die without supplies. He alsowanted them to wait until soldiers were available to escort thempast hostile whites. It was two more years before the Paiutes leftYakima. Because of the long delay, Sarah felt that her effortshad been a failure.

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Sarah continued to work for many years for her people. Shewanted them to be given land to raise their own crops. Shewanted the children to learn English and to read and write. Butshe did not want them to lose their tribal identity or to forgettheir pride in being Indians.

Sarah worked as an interpreter, guide, and scout for variousgovernment officials. She also taught school and went on trips tothe East to lecture to groups of white people. She told them whatwas happening on the Indian reservations. In her lectures, Sarahtold her audiences that Paiute Indians let everyone express theiropinions during councils. She said that women knew as muchabout tribal affairs as men did and often gave their advice. Shesaid, "If women could go into your Congress, I think justicewould be done to the Indians."

While on a lecture tour, Sarah met Elizabeth Peabody and hersister, Mary Peabody Mann, the wife of the educationalreformer, Horace Mann. These women became her staunchsupporters. Both sisters encouraged her and raised money to helpeducate her people. Sarah called the school that was built withthe funds the Peabody School.

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Sarah was an unusual woman, accomplished in languages andskilled as a speaker. She was courageous in her willingness tospeak out against injustice. She tried to call attention to the waysin which her people had been wronged. She tried to help herpeople by speaking out for thern and by teaching the children tospeak for themselves. Sarah Winnemucca died in 1891 at theage of forty-seven. In her short life, she won a place in history asone of America's most honored Indian women.

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HISTORY OF SARAH WINNEMUCCA

1844 Sarah Winnemucca was born.

1848 Gold was discovered in California. The Treaty ofGuadalupe Hidalgo ended the war with Mexico.

1860 The pony express began.

1861-1865 The Civil War was fought. Abraham Lincolnwas president.

1864 Camels were used as pack animals in NevadaTerritory.

1860s & 1870s Sarah Winnemucca served as an interpreter,guide. and scout for various government officials.

1867 A railroad was built through Paiute land on thePyramid Lake reserve, and white people beganmoving in.

1870 Sarah Winnemucca began to speak out about thegovernment's mistreatment of her people.

1880 Sarah Winnemucca met with President Ruther-ford B. Hayes to discuss the plight of her people.Sarah's father, Chief Winnemucca, died.

1881 Sarah Winnemucca opened a school in Washing-ton Territory for Indian children.

1883 Sarah Winnemucca coauthored a book calledLife Among the Puiutes: Their Claims and Wrongs.

1888 Wovoka, a Paiute Indian, began preaching hisGhost Dance religion.

1890 Sioux participation in the Ghost Dance led to theBattle of Wounded Knee ( South Dakota ).

1891 Sarah Winnemucca died.