Life Among the Paiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims by Sarah Winnemucca is both an autobiographic memoir and a history of the Paiute people during their first forty years of contact with European Americans. It is considered the ‘first known autobiography written by a Native American woman.’
Winnemucca had been working as an advocate, diplomat, and interpreter for the Paiute people, utilizing her ability to speak English.
The book ends with a supplication to her readers to sign a petition to the U.S. Congress requesting for the return of a piece of land to the Paiutes, uses strong pathos and detailed, emotionally-heavy imagery in describing the difficulties of reservation life, and calls for white audience responsibility with quotes such as ‘Oh my dear good Christian people, how long are you going to stand by and see us suffer at your hands?’.
About the author
Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins (c. 1844 – October 17, 1891) was a Northern Paiute author, activist (lecturer) and educator (school organizer). Her maiden name is Winnemucca. Her Northern Paiute name was Thocmentony, also spelled Tocmetone, which translates as ‘Shell Flower’.
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