Sarah Winnemucca

Who was Sarah Winnemucca?

Sarah Winnemucca was a prominent female Paiute activist and educator; she helped gain release of her people from the Yakima Reservation following the Bannock War of 1878, lectured widely in the East in 1883 on injustices against Native Americans in the West, established a private school for Indian students in Nevada, and was an influential figure in development of United States' 19th-century Indian policies.

Winnemucca was notable as having published the "first known autobiography written by a Native American woman." Her book, Life Among the Paiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims, is both a memoir and history of her people during their first forty years of contact with European Americans. Anthropologist Omer Stewart described it as "one of the first and one of the most enduring ethnohistorical books written by an American Indian," frequently cited by scholars.

Since the late 20th century, Winnemucca has received renewed attention for her contributions. In 1993 she was inducted posthumously into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. In 2005, the state of Nevada contributed a statue of her by sculptor Benjamin Victor to the National Statuary Hall Collection in the U.S. Capitol.