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.
Updated: 22 Feb 2021, 12:23
GROUNDBREAKING Indigenous author and activist Zitkala-Ša lived and worked in two different worlds.
The renowned suffragist and voting rights activist was born in Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, in 1876 - the year that the Sioux defeated Custer, she liked to remind people.
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On February 22, 2021, Google Doodles mark the 145th birthday of writer, musician, teacher, composer, and suffragist Zitkala-Ša, a member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota
Who was Zitkala-Sa?
Throughout her life she actively opposed the “Americanization” of Indigenous American culture.
She was raised by her mother and aunts after her father, a man of French descent, abandoned the family.
What are Zitkala-Sa s most famous quotes? the-sun.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from the-sun.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Courtesy Duane Garvais Lawrence
Lenice Blackbird, a 25-year-old member of the Omaha Tribe in Nebraska, left her home in late June to isolate after being diagnosed with COVID-19 and she never returned. Her body was found a few days later in the woods near a cabin in Macy, Nebraska, according to reports in the
Siouxland News.
In September, her mother, Donna Blackbird, stood with friends and family on the Omaha Reservation, holding a poster decorated with Lenice’s face and a red handprint widely used to symbolize Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) and told her family’s story to Duane Garvais Lawrence and his Facebook Live audience.
These Men Ran and Biked Across the Country for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.