Life Story: Sarah Winnemucca (ca. 1844 - 1891)

Sarah Winnemucca was born around the year 1844. She was the daughter of Tuboitone, a Northern Paiute woman, and Winnemucca, a Shoshone man who was adopted into the Northern Paiute community through marriage. Tuboitone and Winnemucca named their daughter Thocmetony, which meant “shell flower.” At the time of Sarah’s birth, the Northern Paiute were a nomadic people who inhabited the lands known today as western Nevada and eastern Oregon. Sarah spent her early childhood traveling from encampment to encampment with her family, learning the ways of her people. 

From an early age, Sarah received conflicting messages about the white settlers. The Northern Paiute generally treated all white settlers with suspicion, knowing that white settlers frequently tried to rob Indigenous people of their goods and lands. But Sarah’s grandfather Tru-ki-zo was a renowned warrior who aided the Americans during the Mexican-American War. He wanted Sarah and her siblings to learn how to work with white settlers because he believed this was the best way for them to advance in a rapidly changing world. Tru-ki-zo took Sarah with him on trading journeys to California and oversaw her placement with white American families as a domestic servant. During these interactions, Sarah learned to read and write in English and Spanish. She learned about the culture and practices of white settlers. It was during this time that she took the name Sarah, which she used publicly for the rest of her life. Sarah’s understanding of both Northern Paiute and American culture would make her a fierce and skilled advocate for her people. But it also made her an outsider in both American and Northern Paiute society. 

In 1859, news of the discovery of the Comstock Lode in Northern Paiute lands made headlines all over the United States. Hundreds of prospectors rushed to Northern Paiute lands to stake their claim and make their fortunes, leading to conflict with the Northern Paiute and other local tribes. In 1859, the U.S. government forced the Northern Paiute to move to Pyramid Lake Reservation and give up their nomadic lifestyle. The reservation did not support the traditional Northern Paiute way of life, and they struggled. When two Northern Paiute women were attacked and raped by white settlers in 1860, the tribe rebelled. The Northern Paiute easily defeated the local settlers and miners, but their victory had dire consequences. In 1861, the U.S. government created the Nevada Territory and gave the governor the power to do whatever he deemed necessary to keep the Northern Paiute under American control. 

During the next four years, Sarah worked as an interpreter between U.S. government agents and her people. In these exchanges, she did her best to promote Northern Paiute survival. She also traveled frequently to Virginia City, Nevada, where she and her family performed shows that exposed white settlers to Northern Paiute culture. But their efforts did not work. In 1865, the U.S. Army led a campaign against the Northern Paiute to assert their dominance over the tribe. Sarah’s mother and infant brother were killed during this campaign, and her sister died during the difficult winter that followed.

In 1868, the government moved the surviving Northern Paiute to Malheur Reservation in Oregon. In 1871, Sarah was hired as an interpreter for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She worked closely with Indian Agent Samuel B. Parrish, who wanted to support the Northern Paiute in their transition to American-style farming. Samuel opened a school on the reservation, and Sarah was appointed one of the first teachers. At this point in her life, Sarah still believed that accommodation and assimilation were the best way for her people to survive. 

In 1876, Samuel was replaced by William V. Rinehart, who had a very different approach to managing relations with Indigenous communities. William wanted Indigenous people to submit to white rule. He did not pay them fairly for their agricultural labor, and sold the supplies sent by the U.S. government to white settlers. He fired Sarah because she spoke up for the Northern Paiute when translating during meetings. In 1878, the Bannock, who lived on the Malheur Reservation with the Northern Paiutes, rebelled. During the Bannock War, Sarah was hired as an interpreter for the U.S. Army. She encouraged the Northern Paiute to cooperate with the army. Unfortunately, the war ended badly for the Northern Paiute, who were forced to relocate yet again to Yakama Reservation in Washington Territory. Some Northern Paiute believed Sarah had betrayed her people. 

Sarah was devastated by this turn of events. She started formally advocating for the Northern Paiute with the U.S. government through letters and petitions. In 1880, she traveled to Washington, D.C. with her father and other Northern Paiute leaders, where she met with the Secretary of the Interior. Sarah managed to secure a letter permitting the Northern Paiute to return to Malheur Reservation, but the Indian Agent of Yakama Reservation refused to allow them to leave.

Furious, Sarah broadened her campaign to secure justice for her people. She began lecturing in San Francisco, telling white audiences the truth about Indian Removal and exposing many for the first time to the rich history and culture of Indigenous people. William Rinehart tried to discredit her by calling her a drunk and a sex worker in newspapers, but Sarah’s lectures caught the attention of eastern education activists Elizabeth Palmer Peabody and Mary Peabody Mann. They invited Sarah to bring her lecture tour to the Northeast. They also helped her publish her autobiography, Life Among the Piutes, in 1883. It was the first autobiography written by an Indigenous woman in the U.S.

Sarah gave over 300 lectures about the history and plight of the Northern Paiute, but in the end, she grew frustrated and disillusioned with white audiences. In her lectures, Sarah spoke plainly about how white settlers were aggressors in the West, but her audience did not want to abandon their own romantic ideas of western settlement. In 1885, she returned to the Yakama Reservation to start a school for Northern Paiute children. Even this more modest act was doomed to failure. In 1887, the U.S. government passed the Dawes Act, which in part required that Indigenous children go to schools exclusively owned and operated by white people. Sarah’s school was shut down.

Sarah passed her final years quietly until she died of consumption in 1891. She failed to bring about the changes she wanted to see for her people, but her activism left an impression. Her passing was marked by an obituary in the New York Times, a testament to how she raised consciousness about the plight of Indigenous people in the U.S.

• Bannock: An Indigenous tribe that traditionally inhabited lands that spanned across Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, and Oregon. Today, Bannock leadership is headquartered in Idaho.
• Bureau of Indian Affairs: U.S. federal agency tasked with managing relationships with Indigenous tribes that inhabit lands claimed by the U.S.
• Comstock Lode: The first major discover of silver in the U.S. The announcement of the discovery of the Comstock Lode triggered a rush of settlers moving to Nevada.
• Dawes Act: 1887 U.S. law that called for the forced assimilation of all Indigenous people through land and education policies.
• domestic servant: A person who cooks, cleans, and performs other household chores.
• Indian Agent: A person appointed to interact with Indigenous tribes on behalf of the U.S. government.
• Mexican-American War: 1846-1848 war between U.S. and Mexico over control of lands along their shared border. 
• Northern Paiute: Also called Numa. Indigenous community that originally occupied lands that spanned Nevada and Oregon. Today, there are Northern Paiute communities in Nevada.
• petition: A formal written request that is signed by many people.