Jan McCutcheon

English 48B
Journal for Winnemucca

Author Quote: “If women could go into your Congress I think Justice would soon be done to the Indians” (510).

Internet Quote: “Sarah Winnemucca (1844–1891) was a member of the Paiute tribe born in what would later become the state of Nevada. She was the daughter of the Chief Winnemucca and granddaughter of Chief Truckee. Her Paiute name was Thocmetony (or Tocmetoni), which means “shellflower”; it is not known why or when she took the name Sarah. Having a great facility with languages, she served as an interpreter and negotiator between her people and the U.S. Army. In 1878 when the Bannock Indians revolted and were being pursued by the U.S. Army under General Oliver Howard’s command, Sarah volunteered for a dangerous mission. Locating her father’s band being forcibly held by the Bannocks, she secretly led them away to army protection in a three-day ride over 230 miles of rugged terrain with little food or rest.”

Summary: In Sarah Winnemucca’s autobiography Life Among the Piutes she describes growing up in the territory that is now Nevada. Her grandfather welcomed the “white brothers” to their land, but the white settlers did not embrace the Piutes, in spite of the repeated efforts by the Indians to befriend them. When news spread that the whites were killing all the Indians, and coming to their camp, Winnemucca’s mother buried her and her cousin in the sand to hide them for fear they might be killed and eaten. She describes the tribe’s coming of age rituals and tells that the tribe is decreasing because mothers do not want to have more children to suffer the misery brought by the whites. The final chapter in our reading describes how the military ordered the Piutes to move to the Yakima Reservation during severe winter weather. Sarah pleaded with them not to do it, but they could not be persuaded.

Response: It is shocking to read how terribly the whites treated the Piutes. Winnemucca learned to speak English and was the translator between the two groups and saw how inhuman the so-called civilized people behaved toward the so-called savages. She became an activist for her people, but it did little to change the brutality inflicted on them.