Editing Sarah Winnemucca (section)

{{Short description|Northern Paiute author, activist, and educator (c. 1844 –1891)}}
{{use mdy dates|date=March 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Sarah Winnemucca
| image              = Sarah_Winnemucca.jpg
| alt                = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
| caption            = 
| birth_name         = Thocmentony ("Shell Flower")
| birth_date         = c. 1844
| birth_place        = near [[Humboldt Lake]], Nevada
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1891|10|16|1844|}}
| death_place        = [[Henry's Lake]], Idaho
| nationality        = Northern Paiute
| other_names        = Sarah Winnemuca Hopkins
| occupation         = Author, educator
| years_active       = 
| known_for          = Activist and spokeswoman for Northern Paiute
| notable_works      = ''[[Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims]]'' (1883)
| spouse             = Edward Bartlett (1872)<br />Lewis H. Hopkins (1881)
| father             = [[Winnemucca (Paiute leader)|Winnemucca]]
| mother             = Tuboitonie
| relatives          = [[Truckee (chief)|Truckee]] (grandfather)
}}

'''Sarah (née Winnemucca) Hopkins''' ({{circa|1844}} – October 17, 1891) was a [[Northern Paiute]] writer, activist, lecturer, teacher, and school organizer. Her [[Northern Paiute language|Northern Paiute]] name was '''Thocmentony''', also spelled '''Tocmetone''',{{sfn|Canfield|1988|p=4}} which translates as "[[Chelone (plant)|Shell Flower]]."<ref>{{cite web |title=Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins (1844-1891) |url=https://shpo.nv.gov/nevadas-historical-markers/historical-markers/sarah-winnemucca-hopkins |website=Nevada State Historical Preservation Office |access-date=28 December 2022}}</ref>

Sarah Winnemucca was born near [[Humboldt Lake]], [[Nevada]], into an influential Northern Paiute family who led their community in pursuing friendly relations with the arriving groups of Anglo-American settlers. She was the daughter of [[Winnemucca (Paiute leader)|Chief Winnemucca]] of the Paiute nation and the granddaughter of [[Truckee (chief)|Chief Truckee]]. At 16, Sarah studied at a Catholic school in [[San Jose, California|San Jose]], California.<ref>{{Cite web |title=SARAH WINNEMUCCA – Nevada Women's History Project |url=https://www.nevadawomen.org/research-center/biographies-alphabetical/sarah-winnemucca/ |access-date=2022-03-29 |website=www.nevadawomen.org}}</ref> When the [[Paiute War]] erupted between the Pyramid Lake Paiute and the settlers, including some who were friends of the Winnemucca family, Sarah and some of her family traveled to [[San Francisco]] and [[Virginia City]] to escape the fighting. They made a living performing onstage as "A Paiute Royal Family." In 1865, while the Winnemucca family was away, their [[Band (anthropology)|band]] was attacked by the U.S. cavalry, who killed 29 Paiutes, including Sarah's mother and several members of her extended family.

At 27, Sarah began working in the [[Bureau of Indian Affairs]] at [[Fort McDermit]] in 1871 as an interpreter. Subsequently, Winnemucca became an advocate for the [[rights of Native Americans]], traveling across the U.S. to tell Anglo- Americans about the plight of her people. When the Paiute were interned in a concentration camp at [[Yakima, Washington]] after the [[Bannock War]], she traveled to Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress and the executive branch for their release. She also served U.S. forces as a messenger, interpreter, and guide, and as a teacher for imprisoned Native Americans.

Winnemucca published ''[[Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims]]'' (1883), a book that is both a memoir and history of her people during their first 40 years of contact with European Americans. It is considered the "first known autobiography written by a Native American woman."<ref name="MN">[http://voices.cla.umn.edu/artistpages/hopkinsSarah.php ''Voices from the Gaps'': "Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins"], [[University of Minnesota Twin Cities|University of Minnesota]] website, accessed 11 February 204</ref> Anthropologist [[Omer Stewart]] described it as "one of the first and one of the most enduring [[Ethnohistory|ethnohistorical]] books written by an American Indian," frequently cited by scholars.<ref name="omer">[http://escholarship.org/uc/item/1vx9q7p0#page-1 Omer Stewart, Review: "Gae Whitney Canfield, 'Sarah Winnemucca of the Northern Paiutes', Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma, 1983"], ''Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology,'' 5(2), 1983, accessed 12 February 2014</ref> Following the publication of the book, Winnemucca toured the Eastern United States, giving lectures about her people in New England, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. She returned to the West, founding a private school for Native American children in [[Lovelock, Nevada]].

Since the late 20th century, scholars have paid renewed attention to Winnemucca for her accomplishments. In 1993, she was inducted posthumously into the [[Nevada Writers Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Nevada Writers Hall of Fame: Sarah Winnemucca|url=http://guides.library.unr.edu/nvwriters-hall-of-fame/winnemucca-1993|website=University of Nevada, Reno|access-date=30 November 2017}}</ref> In 2005, the state of Nevada contributed a [[Sarah Winnemucca (Victor)|statue of her]] by sculptor [[Benjamin Victor (sculptor)|Benjamin Victor]] to the [[National Statuary Hall Collection]] in the [[U.S. Capitol]].

Winnemucca's legacy has been controversial. Some biographers have wished to remember her primarily for her activism and social work to better the conditions for her people, while others have criticized her for her tendency to exaggerate her social status among the Paiute. Among the Paiute, her assistance to the U.S. military at a time when they were at war with the Paiute has been criticized, as has her advocacy for [[Cultural assimilation of Native Americans|assimilation of Natives]] to Anglo-American culture. Still, Paiute have also recognized her social work and activism for Indigenous rights.<ref>Fowler, Catherine. 1994. "Foreword" in Sarah Winnemucca, ''Life Among the Paiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims'', University of Nebraska Press, p. 3</ref>