shopper approved
    2906.55
    1.45
    32.11
    0.13
    1004.13
    9.03
    1012.61
    8.71

    Zitkala-Ša Quarter

    Zitkala-Ša (1876 – 1938) was an Native American activist, educator, and writer whose advocacy made significant strides for the rights of Native Americans in the US. Her work brought attention to the second-class status of her people.

    In addition, she also wrote plainly and at length about the clash between her Native American cultural norms and those of the broader American society. As almost an afterthought, she created the very first American Indian opera, a subgenre that captured the plight of the Native American in a much more authentic and grounded manner.

    For these achievements, Zitkala-Ša has been the subject of numerous awards, accolades, and tributes over the years. She is commemorated in the US Mint’s American Women Quarters Program as part of its 2024 class.

    Biography

    Zitkala-Ša was born on February 26, 1876 in South Dakota’s Yankton Indian Reservation. She was born Gertrude Simmons to her mother Ellen Simmons (Thaté Iyóhiwiŋ, or “Reaches for the Wind) and a Frenchman named Felker. The lack of information about her father is not an accident – he abandoned her and her mother when she was very young.

    Ellen, unsurprisingly, was a Yankton Sioux, or Dakota. Thus, her daughter would be raised within the customs, cultures, and traditions of the Yankton Sioux. Though she would continue to use the name Gertrude at various times for legal reasons, she adopted the name Zitkala-Ša, meaning “Red Bird,” to connect more deeply with her mother’s heritage.

    Red Bird lived simply on the reservation for her first eight years. Then, Quaker missionaries visited the Yanktons and convinced Zitkala-Ša to attend a missionary school in Indiana, White’s Indiana Manual Labor Institute. Despite her mother’s disapproval, she left to attend the school.

    Red Bird would attend the Institute for the next three years. This time proved to be the first exposure that she had to the broader culture, and it left her with conflicting emotions about the experience.

    On the one hand, it was traumatic, as she was compelled to cut her Dakotan hair and pray in the Quaker religion. If she happened to slip back into her native language or referred to her Yankton Sioux traditions, she was subject to beatings.

    On the other hand, Red Bird delighted in her newfound knowledge about the English language. In addition, she would learn how to play the violin and read music, which played a critical role in her future activities and efforts.

    Red Bird bounced back and forth between the reservation and White’s until graduating from the latter in 1895. She continued to struggle with the pull she felt from both her native tradition and the overall customs of American culture.

    She received a scholarship to attend Earlham College in Indiana and train to be a teacher. However, she had to withdraw with only six weeks left until she graduated due to financial and health reasons.

    Early adult years

    Instead, she moved to Boston to recover and to attend the New England Conservatory of Music to study violin. She then spent the next two years as a music teacher at Carlisle Indian School.

    However, after a visit back to her reservation, she was dismayed by the deterioration of the conditions there. She was further disturbed by the continued identity override that Native American students faced at Carlisle.

    She wrote about her observations in Harper’s Monthly under her Yankton Sioux name, Zitkala-Ša. Unfortunately, her superiors at Carlisle weren’t amused, and she was fired in 1901.

    Red Bird returned to her reservation in South Dakota to assist her mother. She worked as a clerk for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) office on the nearby Standing Rock Indian Reservation, and continued to write features – notably, she published a piece in the Atlantic Monthly entitled “Why I Am a Pagan” as a rebuke of the Quaker religion and an embrace of her own Native American beliefs and practices.

    She also met Raymond Talephause Bonnin, a fellow Yankton-European who worked at the BIA himself. She married him in 1902, and after he was assigned to the Uintah and Ouray Reservation Agency, the couple moved to Utah.

    Rise to prominence

    They would remain in Utah for the next fourteen years. In that time, the couple also welcomed their one and only child – a son.

    Zitkala-Ša joined the Society of American Indians as a correspondent in 1911. The society’s dual missions – preserving Native American traditions while also pushing for US citizenship for Indians – was near and dear to Red Bird’s heart. While at the SAI, she pushed for a third issue – women’s suffrage.

    Meanwhile, she also wrote her first-of-its-kind opera – The Sun Dance – with composer William F. Hanson. The opera, which featured a libretto rooted in genuine Native American stories and tales, debuted in Vernal, Utah in 1913.

    In her capacity with the SAI, however, she clashed with the BIA. She strongly criticized the abuses that Native Americans – especially children – suffered at the hands of white overseers due to continued adherence to their own religion and tradition, rather than Christianity.

    Unfortunately for the couple, her husband still worked for the BIA. In retaliation for his wife’s advocacy, Raymond Bonnin was fired from his position.

    It ended up as a sort of blessing, however. The couple moved the family to Washington, DC, where Red Bird took over as the secretary for the SAI.

    She also increased her campaign for women’s suffrage. She even spoke at the National Women’s Party in 1918.

    However, the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, both eliminated Zitkala-Ša’s need to campaign on that issue and galvanized her to redouble her efforts on behalf of her Native brethren. So, she published two of her most important works in the four years after the achievement of women’s suffrage.

    The first of these books was a collection of tales entitled American Indian Stories, which was published in 1921. Two years later, she wrote part of what would become her best-known publication – Oklahoma’s Poor Rich Indians: An Orgy of Graft and Exploitation of the Five Civilized Tribes, Legalized Robbery.

    Zitkala-Ša’s writings, along with her steadfast lobbying and advocacy, played a major role in the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924. This bill granted Native Americans their US citizenship, but it was not a perfect law.

    The problem was that voting rights were largely a state-level issue at that time. Hence, despite being full American citizens federally, American Indians could still be turned away from voting. Furthermore, some of the provisions of the Act contained elements that would further pull Native Americans away from their traditions, including a mandatory education for children similar in nature to Red Bird’s experiences at White’s.

    Later years

    So, together with her husband, Zitkala-Ša founded the National Council of American Indians in 1926. The idea behind the group was to unify the different tribes across the nation in their battles for suffrage and other equal rights.

    She continued to act as the group’s president for the next 12 years. Then, on January 26, 1938, Red Bird passed away at the age of 61.

    She was buried next to her husband in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Her husband had served honorably as an army captain during the First World War, which afforded him and his wife the privilege of burial at our nation’s most famous cemetery.

    Legacy

    Zitkala-Ša is remembered for her body of writings and her successful model for advocacy and reform. She has been the subject of two different 21st-century operas and has been cited as an honoree for Women’s History Month by the National Women’s History Project.

    She has also been remembered in two different modern operas, including one that is partially written in Zitkala-Ša’s Dakota language. Perhaps most interestingly, she has a crater on Venus named after her.

    Zitkala-Ša is one of the lesser-known members of the American Women Quarters Program, but her story is an important one. She stood for her language, religion, and tradition against the weight of American society, which bore down hard in opposition.

    The 2024 quarter

    The Zitkala-Ša quarter was the fifth and final quarter released by the Mint in 2024. It is also the fifteenth coin released in the series.

    As with all of them, the quarter’s obverse features George Washington. The first president has been the image on the 25-cent piece since 1932.

    The reverse features the tribute to Zitkala-Ša. Her traditional name is imprinted across the bottom of the coin, and she is depicted in her Sioux clothing. Her hair is long and braided into two ponytails.

    She holds a book, a nod to her written contributions, and she is imposed over a sunrise. The reference is subtle, but it is a clear suggestion of her opera – The Sun Dance.

    Finally, her three major roles in life are listed alongside her image. Zitkala-Ša is forever immortalized as follows: Author, Activist, and Composer.

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