Gertrude Käsebie, Zitkála-Šá (around 1898) Photo: Gertrude Käsebier; National Museum of American History
The writer, musician and political activist Zitkála-Šá (Yankton Sioux) who was born 22 February 1876 is honoured in today’s Google Doodle for her prolific creative and political achievements in an illustration created by the Chicago-based artist Chris Pappan (Kaw Nation, Osage and Cheyenne River Sioux).
Zitkála-Šá, whose name means “Red Bird”, was born on the Yankton Indian Reservation in South Dakota to a Sioux mother and an estranged German-American father. She entered a Quaker mission school in Wabash, Indiana, aged eight, where she was given the name Gertrude Simmons.