Life among the Piute

Sing Ruby Siu
English 48B
January 22, 2009
Journal #5 Sarah Winnemucca


QUOTE:
“We shall no longer be a happy people, as we now are; we shall no longer go here and there as of old; we shall no longer build our big fires as a signal to our friends, for we shall always be afraid of being seen by those bad people” (507).

SUMMARY:
In Sarah Winnemucca’s “Life among the Piutes,” she quoted her father’s fearful dream. His father envisioned that there will be a great emigration happened in their tribe due to the intrusion of the white people. Her father felt that there would be a terrible assassination and disaster to his own people, so he ordered his people to hide themselves in the mountains during all summer and winter. The above quote is actually spoken by some old women of the tribe, responding to the chief’s speech. From their words, these women were filled with remorse and grief. Facing the cruel Whites who are going to kill and eat them, these tribe members anticipated gigantic changes that would threaten their happy life and freedom before.

RESPONSE:

Sarah Winnemucca was known as the first Native American woman who published and copyrighted books in English. Born in Native American community, Winnemucca however spent most of her adulthood in the white society and even married to a white husband. Despite her universally recognized success as a Native American female writer, her idealism and activism in her speeches and autobiography were viewed by many of her readers, including Native Americans, as evidence of collaboration helping “the U.S. Army kill her people” (Wikipedia). The controversy has always been whether Sarah Winnemucca is an authentic activism in Indian affairs or betrayer of her tribe. In my opinion, the Sarah Winnemucca reflected in the autobiography is very loyal to her race.

In her childhood, Winnemucca noted in her autobiography her feeling of being buried alive early in chapter one. As a little girl she heard of how her grandfather loved the whites, yet she witnessed the cruel white men chasing and killing her people; she must have developed a sense of hatred and agony toward her fate. She felt an urge to tell others the suffering of her tribe, so she put her experience of escape from the Whites very early in the book. The quote of the old women I put indirectly shows how Winnemucca felt about their emigration.

Brought by her grandfather to Sacramento, Sarah Winnemucca was among the few Indians who learnt to write and speak English. Being increasingly familiar to the Western psyche, she in her autobiography excellently described the cultural beliefs and customs of Westerners in order to gain authority and trust. Later, she depicted wonderful stories of her tribe, such as her grandfather and father’s vision, and the practice of Festival of Flowers in order to arouse interest and sympathy from the white audience. Winnemucca also used different literary techniques, such as symbolism, metaphor, exaggeration and sarcastic tones, to express her different emotions. Her proficiency in English though gave her ability to live in white society, also adds strength and effectiveness to her argument on Indian affairs.