Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V.
Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Frye.
Speaker 2: Today we are going to talk about Sarah Winnemucca, who
Speaker 2: was Northern Paiute and was born not long before her
Speaker 2: band had their first contact with people of European descent.
Speaker 2: That happened in the middle of the nineteenth century, which
Speaker 2: means that she lived through a lot, and a lot
Speaker 2: of what she lived through was violent and horrifying. She
Speaker 2: spent a lot of her adult life trying to advocate
Speaker 2: for the Northern Piute. Although her legacy in that regard
Speaker 2: has some complexities, there's enough that happened and enough complexities
Speaker 2: that this blossomed into a two part episode. Sarah Winnemaka's
Speaker 2: name in the Northern Paiute language was Tony Tonige and
Speaker 2: that means shellflower, and she published her book under the
Speaker 2: name Sarah Winnemaca Hopkins, which was her married name at
Speaker 2: the time. The name Winnamacca means giver, and in addition
Speaker 2: to her use of it as a surname, it was
Speaker 2: also used by multiple men in her family, including her grandfather, father,
Speaker 2: and brother. So to try to avoid confusion, we are
Speaker 2: going to refer to her mostly as Sarah, to her
Speaker 2: father as Winnemacca, and to her grandfather and brother as
Speaker 2: other names that they were also known by, and those
Speaker 2: are Trucky for her grandfather and Natchez for her brother.
Speaker 2: Both of those are probably nicknames that were given to
Speaker 2: them by white people. Trucky probably came from a Northern
Speaker 2: Payte word meaning alright, was something that they heard him
Speaker 2: say a lot, and the Natchez came from the northern
Speaker 2: Payete word for boy, because that was how his father
Speaker 2: would refer to him in front of white people and
Speaker 2: be like, Okay, you can talk to my boy about that.
Speaker 2: They are also though names that Sarah used for them
Speaker 2: in her book and other writings. The term Piute is
Speaker 2: used to describe multiple distinct Numic speaking peoples from the
Speaker 2: Great Basin region of western North America. That's the watersheds
Speaker 2: surrounded by mountains and plateaus that includes most of what
Speaker 2: is now Nevada, as well as adjacent parts of Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, California,
Speaker 2: and northwestern Mexico. The name Piute comes from Spanish, possibly
Speaker 2: from the same origins as the word Ute, which is
Speaker 2: used for another Numic speaking people of this region and
Speaker 2: is also the origin of the name Utah. The Northern
Speaker 2: and Southern Piute are two distinct peoples, and multiple Northern
Speaker 2: and Southern Pyute bands still exist today. Although Piute isn't
Speaker 2: the name these bands and tribes chose for themselves, it
Speaker 2: is one that many of them use. The Northern Piute
Speaker 2: referred to themselves as Nimah, meaning the People. Their ancestral
Speaker 2: homeland includes what's now eastern California, western Nevada, and southeastern Oregon.
Speaker 2: Sarah Winnemucca was born near Humboldt Lake in what's now
Speaker 2: Nevada around eighteen forty four, although she wasn't sure exactly when.
Speaker 2: At that time, Mexico claimed most of the territory where
Speaker 2: her people lived. In her book Life among the Piutes,
Speaker 2: Their Wrongs and Claims, she describes the Northern Piute as
Speaker 2: scattered all over what is now known as Nevada before
Speaker 2: she was born. Much of the beginning of the book
Speaker 2: is about the Northern Piute's first encounters with white people,
Speaker 2: which started when she was still a baby. These were
Speaker 2: not the first white people ever to arrive in the
Speaker 2: Great Basin that had happened at least twenty years before,
Speaker 2: but they were the first ones her grandfather, known as
Speaker 2: Tracy mentioned earlier as Trucky or Old Winnemucca, personally saw.
Speaker 2: In her words quote, my grandfather was chief of the
Speaker 2: entire Piute nation and was camped near Humboldt Lake with
Speaker 2: a small portion of his tribe when a party traveling
Speaker 2: eastward from California was seen coming. When the news was
Speaker 2: brought to my grandfather, he asked what they looked like.
Speaker 2: When told that they had hair on their faces and
Speaker 2: were white, he jumped up and clasped his hands together
Speaker 2: and cried aloud. My white brothers, My long looked for
Speaker 2: white brothers, have come at last. This description of her
Speaker 2: grandfather as the chief of the entire Piute nation doesn't
Speaker 2: really capture the full story. The Northern Piute were made
Speaker 2: up of bands of families, with each band having a headman.
Speaker 2: The headman made some decisions along with a council of elders,
Speaker 2: but often the consensus of the entire band was involved.
Speaker 2: Different people also served as leaders for different specific functions,
Speaker 2: like being the leader of a h hunting party, or
Speaker 2: in the time of war. Sometimes, if there was a
Speaker 2: reason for multiple bands to come together, someone might act
Speaker 2: as the primary mediator and counselor among them, but that
Speaker 2: responsibility lasted only as long as it needed to. It
Speaker 2: was not a permanent situation. White newcomers to the area,
Speaker 2: on the other hand, expected there to be some kind
Speaker 2: of centralized leadership governing an entire tribe, so they assumed
Speaker 2: Trucky was chief or king of all the Northern Piutes.
Speaker 2: That fed into white people seeing Trucky and his whole
Speaker 2: family as authority figures, which then affected their relationship with
Speaker 2: the rest of their tribe. So we don't fully know
Speaker 2: Sarah Winnemucka's thought process behind describing her grandfather in this
Speaker 2: way like he was important, she gave him a different
Speaker 2: degree of importance than really he would have had among
Speaker 2: the Northern Piute, And there were definitely people who thought
Speaker 2: it was really self serving and self for grandizing. But
Speaker 2: this book, along with all of Sarah Winnemucca's other writing
Speaker 2: and speeches, was created with the goal of getting white
Speaker 2: people's support to help her tribe. Describing herself and her
Speaker 2: family in this way suggested to her audience that she
Speaker 2: deserved their respect and their admiration, or at the very least,
Speaker 2: their interest, and it suggested that she had the kind
Speaker 2: of status that would allow her to speak on her
Speaker 2: people's behalf.
Speaker 1: To return to what Tracy read just a moment ago,
Speaker 1: Trucky saw the newcomers not only as brothers, but brothers
Speaker 1: whose arrival he had been eagerly anticipating. Sarah described him
Speaker 1: telling a story about their people's origins involving two boys
Speaker 1: and two girls, one of each dark and the other white.
Speaker 1: In the context of this story, Trucky thought the arrival
Speaker 1: of white people to what's now Nevada was going to
Speaker 1: heal an ancient wound between the descendants of these two pairs.
Speaker 1: Trucky met and made friends with people like Captain John Fremont,
Speaker 1: who was on an expedition to map the Great Basin region.
Speaker 1: Trucky and eleven other Payute men went with him into
Speaker 1: Mexican Territory to support a group of Americans in a
Speaker 1: rebellion against Mexican authorities, which came to be known as
Speaker 1: the Bear Flag Revolt. He returned to Pyute Territory after
Speaker 1: the Mexican American War with stories of how beautiful California was,
Speaker 1: and he also carried a letter of introduction from Fremont,
Speaker 1: which he used to basically open doors for himself and
Speaker 1: his people when he encountered white authority figures. Later on
Speaker 1: in her book, Sarah described this as a talking paper
Speaker 1: and Trucky called it his rag friend. Not long after
Speaker 1: rejoining his band, Trucky returned to California with about thirty families.
Speaker 1: While he was gone, words started to spread among the
Speaker 1: Northern Pyute and other tribes about grit groups of white
Speaker 1: people who were coming through and killing anyone who got
Speaker 1: in their way. Indigenous people started fleeing into the mountains
Speaker 1: to try to stay safe. At one point, Trucky's band
Speaker 1: heard that there were white people coming, and Sarah described
Speaker 1: trying to run away with her mother and her aunt,
Speaker 1: along with her baby sister and a cousin. But Sarah
Speaker 1: and her cousin just couldn't keep up. Sarah really was
Speaker 1: too terrified to even move, so her mother and aunt
Speaker 1: decided to bury the girls up to their necks and
Speaker 1: cover their faces with sagebrush to hide them and protect
Speaker 1: them from the sun. And Sarah's words quote, oh can
Speaker 1: anyone imagine my feelings, buried alive, thinking every minute that
Speaker 1: I was to be unburied and eaten up by the
Speaker 1: people that my grandfather loved so much. Eventually, they thought
Speaker 1: the danger had passed, and Sarah's mother and aunt came
Speaker 1: back to retrieve her and her cousin. But then they
Speaker 1: learned that white people had found and burned their winter supplies. Quote.
Speaker 1: My father took some of his men during the night
Speaker 1: to try and save some of it, but they could not.
Speaker 1: It had burnt down before they got there. These were
Speaker 1: the last white men that came along that fall. My
Speaker 1: people talked fearfully that winter about those they called our
Speaker 1: white brothers. My people said they had something like awful
Speaker 1: thunder and lightning, and with that they killed everything that
Speaker 1: came in their way. In Sarah's account, her father, Winnemucca,
Speaker 1: was filling the role of chief in Trucky's absence, and
Speaker 1: he started to have prophetic dreams about white people coming
Speaker 1: and killing them all. A lot of people were afraid
Speaker 1: not just of being killed, but also, as I alluded
Speaker 1: to earlier, of being eaten. That possibly came from stories
Speaker 1: of the Donner Party, which had become stranded in the
Speaker 1: Sierra Nevada in October of eighteen forty six. Eventually, Winnemaca
Speaker 1: recommended that their band moved the mountains where they would
Speaker 1: usually go in the spring and summer to gather pine nuts,
Speaker 1: and they would wait there until Trucky returned. When Trucky
Speaker 1: got back, he continued to insist that the white people
Speaker 1: were their brothers, even after a group of white men
Speaker 1: killed several of their tribe while they were fishing. Eventually,
Speaker 1: Trucky decided to return to California, this time taking most
Speaker 1: of his family with him. Sarah was probably about seven
Speaker 1: at that point. This was a time when a lot
Speaker 1: more white people were coming to and through the area,
Speaker 1: thanks in part to the California Gold Rush. By her
Speaker 1: own account, Sarah was absolutely terrified of all the white
Speaker 1: people they encountered along the way. In addition to the
Speaker 1: traumatic experiences she'd already had, She thought their wide eyes
Speaker 1: and facial hair made them look like owls. Her feelings
Speaker 1: on this only started to change a little after she
Speaker 1: got very sick and was nursed back to health by
Speaker 1: a white woman. At first, Sarah thought that her illness
Speaker 1: came from eating a sugary bread that some white people
Speaker 1: had given to her, but it turned out that she
Speaker 1: had gotten into some poison oak. This was something that
Speaker 1: did not grow where she was from, but it's native
Speaker 1: to the part of California that they were traveling through.
Speaker 1: She was really miserable and her eyes were swollen shut.
Speaker 1: Sarah never really trusted white people in the way that
Speaker 1: her grandfather did, but after this experience, she did start
Speaker 1: to become more comfortable around them. At this point, there
Speaker 1: is a six year gap in Sarah's account. Then, in
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty seven, she and her sister went to work
Speaker 1: for Major William Ormsby, who was an agent of the
Speaker 1: Carson Valley Stage Company in Genoa in what is now Nevada.
Speaker 1: She doesn't say which sister this was, but it was
Speaker 1: probably her younger sister, Elma. Sarah would have been about
Speaker 1: thirteen and her sister a couple of years younger. They
Speaker 1: were hired to be companions for William's daughter, Lizzy, and
Speaker 1: they probably also did some domestic work. They may have
Speaker 1: been allowed to sit in with Lizzie on her lessons,
Speaker 1: which would mean that this was when Sarah learned to
Speaker 1: read and write. This also may have been when she
Speaker 1: started going by the name Sarah rather than Tony Taniga,
Speaker 1: although it's not really clear when that happened.
Speaker 2: In her book, Sarah describes this as a community in
Speaker 2: which white and Indigenous people loved one another without any
Speaker 2: violence or theft. Sarah considered Ormsby and his family to
Speaker 2: be friends, especially after her parents joined the rest of
Speaker 2: the family at Pyramid Lake, Nevada, which is northeast of
Speaker 2: what's now Reno. The Bureau of Indian Affairs had set
Speaker 2: aside land for a reservation for the Northern Piute at
Speaker 2: Pyramid Lake. This happened a few years after the reservation
Speaker 2: system was first established under the Indian Appropriations Act of
Speaker 2: eighteen fifty one, although the reservation wasn't formally surveyed or
Speaker 2: like formally established until much later than this.
Speaker 1: But that piece she described did not last, and we
Speaker 1: will get to that after we pause for a sponsor break.
Speaker 1: While Sarah Winnemucca and her sister were living with Major
Speaker 1: William Ormsby, two white men from Genoa were robbed and
Speaker 1: murdered while they were on their way to California to
Speaker 1: buy supplies for the winter. The culprits stuck arrows into
Speaker 1: the victim's wounds to try to make it look like
Speaker 1: indigenous people had done it. Because Major Ormsby had a
Speaker 1: trusting relationship with Trucky's Northern Paiute band, he summoned several
Speaker 1: of them, including Sarah's brother and her cousin, to identify
Speaker 1: the arrows. Sarah's account describes her cousin as war chief
Speaker 1: and her brother as peace chief. During this time, her
Speaker 1: cousin said the arrows were a type that was used
Speaker 1: by the Washows, which is a tribe whose homelands are
Speaker 1: in the region around Lake Tahoe. The Washo leader, who
Speaker 1: spoke on their behalf, said that these were the Washo's arrows,
Speaker 1: but that no one from his tribe could have killed
Speaker 1: the two men because he knew where they all were
Speaker 1: and no one was unaccounted for. But after this, three
Speaker 1: Washo men were taken prisoner and then were shot by
Speaker 1: white men as they tried to flee. Two of them
Speaker 1: died of their injuries. Later on, after Sarah and her
Speaker 1: sister had returned to their family, they learned that the
Speaker 1: actual white perpetrators had been caught and hanged.
Speaker 2: This whole situation led to conflict between Sarah's band and
Speaker 2: the Washos. As the Washos tried to get some compensation
Speaker 2: for the Piute's involvement in those two men's deaths. Sarah's
Speaker 2: brother Natchez, said that they hadn't had anything to do
Speaker 2: with the white people's actions, but he did eventually give
Speaker 2: the washos All horse. In June of eighteen fifty nine,
Speaker 2: a rich deposit of silver was discovered near Virginia City, Nevada,
Speaker 2: which came to be known as the Comstock Load. This
Speaker 2: led to a huge influx of white people into and
Speaker 2: through Northern Pyute territory and increasing tensions and violence. Newcomers
Speaker 2: also started clearing the native pinion trees to use them
Speaker 2: for lumber and fuel. The nuts from these trees were
Speaker 2: a staple food for the Northern Pyute and other indigenous
Speaker 2: people of the region. White farmers also brought in pigs,
Speaker 2: which ate root vegetables that the Northern Pyute and other
Speaker 2: indigenous peoples depended on. The Winter of eighteen fifty nine
Speaker 2: to eighteen sixty was brutal for the indigenous peoples of
Speaker 2: the region, both because of the weather and because of
Speaker 2: the loss of those critical food sources. Then, in May
Speaker 2: of eighteen sixty two, Piute people were attacked by white
Speaker 2: men at Williams Station, which was one of the Nevada
Speaker 2: stops for the Pony Express. The Piutes rallied a force
Speaker 2: to retaliate, which led Major Ormsby to muster a force
Speaker 2: of his own in response. This was later known as
Speaker 2: the Pyramid Lake War, and on May twelfth of eighteen sixty,
Speaker 2: the Piutes defeated Ormsby's force, and Ormsby himself was killed.
Speaker 2: Additional Federal forces were sent into the area, but the
Speaker 2: Piute bands were able to hide in the desert canyons
Speaker 2: and other places they were familiar with that the white
Speaker 2: soldiers didn't really know how to reach. The Pyramid Lake
Speaker 2: War temporarily forced the Pony Express to suspend service between
Speaker 2: Carson City and Salt Lake City. In October of eighteen sixty,
Speaker 2: Sarah's grandfather, Truckee, got sick and died, possibly as the
Speaker 2: result of a tarantula bite. At his request, his funeral
Speaker 2: and burial rights combined both Pyute and White Christian practices.
Speaker 2: One of his final wish was also for Sarah and
Speaker 2: her sister Elma to be sent to a convent school
Speaker 2: in San Jose, California. They went briefly, but after a
Speaker 2: few weeks, they were sent home because white parents complained
Speaker 2: about their children being in school with two Indigenous girls.
Speaker 2: It's possible that around this time Sarah got married to
Speaker 2: a white man known as Snyder, who was the person
Speaker 2: Truckie had entrusted with escorting her and her sister to
Speaker 2: the convent school. Sarah would have been about sixteen, which
Speaker 2: was considered to be a marriageable age. She does mention
Speaker 2: Snyder in her book and in other writings, but she
Speaker 2: really does not say anything to suggest that she was
Speaker 2: married to him, although there are some other contemporary accounts
Speaker 2: that did. In September of eighteen sixty four, when she
Speaker 2: was about twenty, Sarah went with her father and brother
Speaker 2: to Virginia City, Nevada, to try to raise money. Her
Speaker 2: father spoke about their plight in the Northern Pyute language,
Speaker 2: and she transfer for him. They managed to raise about
Speaker 2: twenty five dollars, and this is when people started to
Speaker 2: call her things like Princess Sarah. At various points after this,
Speaker 2: she her father, and her brother did speaking engagements and
Speaker 2: public performances to try to raise enough money for their
Speaker 2: band to survive. In eighteen sixty six, a different Northern
Speaker 2: Paiute band was accused of stealing cattle. In response, Captain
Speaker 2: Almond Wells arrived and surrounded a group from Sarah's band
Speaker 2: who were fishing at Mud Lake, which is also called
Speaker 2: Winnemucca Lake. According to Wells, the people who were fishing
Speaker 2: shot at him and he returned fire. But according to
Speaker 2: Sarah's account, her father had taken all the young men hunting,
Speaker 2: so the only people at Mud Lake at that time
Speaker 2: were elderly people, women and babies. Wells's men killed twenty
Speaker 2: nine Payutes and the only person to escape was Sarah's
Speaker 2: sister Mary, who fled on horseback. Her mother and a
Speaker 2: baby were killed. The account of this massacre in life
Speaker 2: among the Piutes is flatly horrifying, and Sarah describes it
Speaker 2: as almost killing her father win Amaca when he learned
Speaker 2: about it, and while her sister Mary escaped the attack,
Speaker 2: she died later on that winter in eighteen sixty eight,
Speaker 2: Sarah received a written message from Lieutenant Aaron Jerome of
Speaker 2: the eighth Cavalry, ordering her and her brother.
Speaker 1: Natchez to meet with him to discuss the deaths of
Speaker 1: two soldiers and reports of Piutes stealing horses. In Sarah's account,
Speaker 1: This started after Indian agent Hugh Nugent had illegally sold
Speaker 1: gunpowder to a Piute man who had then been killed
Speaker 1: for possessing that gunpowder. Natchez was away when she got
Speaker 1: the message, so the other Piutes wanted her to write
Speaker 1: back rather than just sending a verbal message. She didn't
Speaker 1: have anything to write with, so she improvised with a
Speaker 1: sharpened s and fish blood for ink. After Natchez returned,
Speaker 1: both of them went to meet with Captain Jerome. They
Speaker 1: told him about what had happened with Nugent and the gunpowder.
Speaker 1: They reassured him that they were not involved in stealing
Speaker 1: any horses. Not long after that, Jerome came to them again,
Speaker 1: this time asking where Winnemucca was. Sarah explained that her
Speaker 1: father had not been back to Pyramid Lake since the
Speaker 1: massacre at Mud Lake had killed so many of his family.
Speaker 1: Jerome asked them to bring Winnemaca to Camp McDermott, which
Speaker 1: was near the border between Nevada and Oregon, and there
Speaker 1: he said the army would offer him protection and supply
Speaker 1: him with provisions. This led to Sarah and her brother Natchez,
Speaker 1: going to Camp McDermott and eventually convincing Winnemaca to go
Speaker 1: as well, along with about five hundred Northern Paiutes. Sarah
Speaker 1: was hired as an official government interpreter for the camp,
Speaker 1: and she was paid sixty five dollars a month. Her
Speaker 1: brother also worked for the army as a scout, and
Speaker 1: sometimes she worked with him. Jerome does seem to have
Speaker 1: been sympathetic to the Paietes after their experiences with Nugent,
Speaker 1: and he's one of the white authority figures that Sarah
Speaker 1: generally trusted and believe treated her people fairly. It does
Speaker 1: seem like they had more food and other resources at
Speaker 1: McDermott than they had at Pyramid Lake, but this was
Speaker 1: also a strategic move that was connected to a more
Speaker 1: overarching US policy, as the federal government tried to force
Speaker 1: all indigenous people to live on reservations. Warfare was ongoing
Speaker 1: between the United States and a number of indigenous nations,
Speaker 1: including the Bannock tribe, which has a lot of cultural, historical,
Speaker 1: and linguistic connections to the Northern Paiute. In the wake
Speaker 1: of these wars, people from multiple tribes and nations were
Speaker 1: all being brought to Camp McDermott until they could be
Speaker 1: placed on a reservation somewhere else. Some of the chiefs
Speaker 1: and headmen who had already been brought to camp mc
Speaker 1: Dermott didn't want to make decisions without Winnemucca there, so
Speaker 1: while these efforts applied to all of the Northern Paiut,
Speaker 1: Jerome was also looking for Winnemucca's band specifically. Sarah was
Speaker 1: skilled and respected as an interpreter. During her lifetime, she
Speaker 1: became fluent in at least five languages, including Northern Paiut, Shoshone, English,
Speaker 1: and Spanish, but white people also criticized various aspects of
Speaker 1: her behavior. At McDermott. She socialized with the soldiers, and
Speaker 1: sometimes this included drinking and gambling. She also carried a
Speaker 1: knife to protect herself, something that she had been doing
Speaker 1: for years, starting after white men had tried to abduct
Speaker 1: her older sister. At some point, she had heated disputes
Speaker 1: with other people, and sometimes these disputes escalated into physical brawling.
Speaker 1: As she became more and more publicly known, newspapers covered
Speaker 1: these kinds of things with a tone of almost gleeful scandal,
Speaker 1: and there were some incidents in which she was clearly
Speaker 1: the victim and things were skewed against her like At
Speaker 1: one point years later, a man tried to break into
Speaker 1: her home and she defended herself with her knife, and
Speaker 1: she was the one who faced charges rather than the
Speaker 1: man who tried to break in. Those charges were ultimately dismissed,
Speaker 1: so white society would have considered all of this unacceptable
Speaker 1: behavior if a white woman was the person doing it,
Speaker 1: but since it was an Indigenous woman, this was seen
Speaker 1: with even more suspicion and scrutiny, and it fed into
Speaker 1: like damaging stereotypes of what white people thought Indigenous women
Speaker 1: were like. All of this scrutiny and sometimes insulting news
Speaker 1: coverage increased with Sarah's growing prominence among white people, which
Speaker 1: we will get into more after a sponsor break. On
Speaker 1: April fourth, seventeen eighty, Sarah Winnemucca wrote a letter to
Speaker 1: Major Henry Douglas, Superintendent of Indian Fairs for Nevada. The
Speaker 1: commander at Camp McDermott had asked her to do this,
Speaker 1: essentially to bring Douglas up to speed on the Northern Piete.
Speaker 1: Douglas was impressed with this letter enough that he forwarded
Speaker 1: it to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Washington. The
Speaker 1: letter was also reprinted in a number of newspapers, including
Speaker 1: in Harper's Weekly, and that prompted other newspapers to print
Speaker 1: responses that really attacked Sarah's morals and character. In this letter,
Speaker 1: Sarah again described her father Winnemucca, as the head chief
Speaker 1: of the whole tribe. She described their time at the
Speaker 1: Pyramid Lake Reservation, which she calls Trucky River. She wrote, quote,
Speaker 1: if we had stayed there, it would be only to starve.
Speaker 1: I think that if they had received what they were
Speaker 1: entitled to from the agents, they would never have left them.
Speaker 1: So far as their knowledge of agriculture extends, they are
Speaker 1: quite ignorant, as they have never had the opportunity of learning.
Speaker 1: But I think if proper pains were taken that they
Speaker 1: would willingly make the effort to maintain themselves by their
Speaker 1: own labor, providing they could be made to believe that
Speaker 1: the products were their own for their own use and comfort.
Speaker 1: It is needless for me to enter into details as
Speaker 1: to how we were treated on the reservation while we
Speaker 1: were there. It is enough to say that we were
Speaker 1: confined to the reserve and had to live on what
Speaker 1: fish we might be able to catch in the river.
Speaker 1: If this is the kind of civilization awaiting us on
Speaker 1: the reserves, God grant that we may never be compelled
Speaker 1: to go on one, as it is much preferable to
Speaker 1: live in the mountains and drag out in existence in
Speaker 1: our native manner. So far as living is concerned, the
Speaker 1: Indians at all military posts get enough to eat and
Speaker 1: considerable cast off clothing. She went on to ask some
Speaker 1: really pointed questions about this whole arrangement. Quote, but how
Speaker 1: long is this to continue? What is the object of
Speaker 1: the government in regard to Indians? Is it enough that
Speaker 1: we are at peace? Remove all the Indians from the
Speaker 1: military posts and place them on reservations such as the
Speaker 1: Trucke and Walker River reservations as they were conducted, and
Speaker 1: it will require a greater military force stationed round to
Speaker 1: keep them within the limits than it now does to
Speaker 1: keep them in subjection. On the other hand, if the
Speaker 1: Indians have any guarantee that they can secure a permanent
Speaker 1: home on their own native soil, and that our white
Speaker 1: neighbors can be kept from encroaching our rights after having
Speaker 1: a reasonable share of ground allotted to us as our
Speaker 1: own and giving us the required advantages of learning. I
Speaker 1: warrant that the savage, as he has called today will
Speaker 1: be a thrifty in law, law abiding member of the
Speaker 1: community fifteen or twenty years. Hence that last sentence sounds
Speaker 1: as though she's calling for the Northern Piute to assimilate
Speaker 1: with white culture, but there were limits to how much
Speaker 1: of that she thought should happen. She considered the English
Speaker 1: language reading and writing, and European style farming methods to
Speaker 1: be tools that the Northern Piute could use to improve
Speaker 1: their own lives and to live in peace with all
Speaker 1: the non indigenous newcomers who clearly were not going anywhere.
Speaker 1: But she also advocated for her people to maintain their
Speaker 1: own culture and their traditional ways of living, not to
Speaker 1: abandon them to live as white people did. No, and
Speaker 1: she says thrifty in law abiding member of the community.
Speaker 1: She's not saying we're going to give up all of
Speaker 1: our own ways. In eighteen seventy two, Sarah got married
Speaker 1: to Lieutenant Edward C. Bartlett. This marriage was actually illegal
Speaker 1: under Nevada's anti missagination laws, so they eloped to Salt
Speaker 1: Lake City in Utah Territory. Then they were married there
Speaker 1: by a Justice of the peace. This marriage didn't last long, though,
Speaker 1: and Sarah later accused Edward of drinking excessively and stealing
Speaker 1: and pawning her jewelry, Although the relationship itself seems to
Speaker 1: have ended long before that. They were officially divorced a
Speaker 1: few years later. In eighteen seventy four, Indian agent Calvin
Speaker 1: Bateman had Sarah's brother, Natchez, arrested, and the army sent
Speaker 1: him to Alcatraz. Natchez and a lot of other people
Speaker 1: had become deeply frustrated over the distribution of winter blankets.
Speaker 1: The federal government was trying to get Indigenous people to
Speaker 1: move onto reservation land by distributing supplies to them only
Speaker 1: at reservations. Natchez had heard that winter blankets were being
Speaker 1: distributed at Walker River Reservation, so he went there, but
Speaker 1: the Indian agent there said they actually needed to go
Speaker 1: to Pyramid Lake. Meanwhile, bait Men, who was the agent
Speaker 1: at Pyramid Lake, said he had nothing to distribute to them,
Speaker 1: and he sent them all back to Walker River. Natas
Speaker 1: had also heard a rumor that all of the Northern
Speaker 1: Paiut were going to be rounded up and sent to
Speaker 1: Fort Hall Reservation in what's now Idaho, or to Indian
Speaker 1: Territory in what's now Kansas. Fort Hall was about five
Speaker 1: hundred miles away, and Indian Territory was about three times
Speaker 1: that far. The idea of being forced to move so
Speaker 1: far from their homeland to a place with a totally
Speaker 1: different landscape and geography was just It was an ongoing
Speaker 1: fear at this point for the Northern Paiut. Natas took
Speaker 1: that rumor to a newspaper called the Humboldt Register, and
Speaker 1: then after all this, Bateman accused him of intentionally sowing unrest.
Speaker 1: Bateman had also sought the support of various Indigenous and
Speaker 1: non Indigenous people who were critical of the Winnemucca family
Speaker 1: for various reasons, as he made this case that Natchez
Speaker 1: was causing trouble. Natchez was held for eleven days and
Speaker 1: released after General John Schofield determined that Bateman's allegations were unfounded.
Speaker 1: While Natchez had critics that Bateman had called on, he
Speaker 1: also had supporters who had contacted Schofield and other authorities
Speaker 1: on his behalf. Bateman faced some criticism over his actions,
Speaker 1: both from Schofield and from newspapers. All of this was
Speaker 1: happening under President Ulysses S. Grant's Peace Policy, in which
Speaker 1: Indian agents, many of whom had been military officers or
Speaker 1: other officials, were being replaced with Christian missionaries and others
Speaker 1: who had some kind of religious background. Bateman was one
Speaker 1: of the agents who had been appointed because of his
Speaker 1: religious affiliations, so a lot of this criticism questioned his
Speaker 1: religious character.
Speaker 2: As all of this was happening, the federal government was
Speaker 2: also continuing its efforts to move Indigenous people onto res
Speaker 2: According to a census that Natchez carried out after he
Speaker 2: was released from Alcatraz, there were nearly twenty five hundred
Speaker 2: Payutes and only two hundred and fifty three were living
Speaker 2: on reservation. So the government really wanted to do something
Speaker 2: about all those other people. In eighteen seventy two, the
Speaker 2: federal government established the Malar Reservation on land in what's
Speaker 2: now southern Oregon and northern Nevada. It was designated for
Speaker 2: the quote roving and straggling bands in eastern and southeastern
Speaker 2: Oregon which can be induced to settle there. That sort
Speaker 2: of blanket statement was meant to include both Northern Paiute
Speaker 2: and Bannock peoples.
Speaker 1: Sarah Winnemucca was hired as an interpreter at Malur Reservation
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy five, working with Indian agent Samuel B. Parish,
Speaker 1: and this was someone else that Sarah came to respect
Speaker 1: and thought treated her people with fairness and empathy. Although
Speaker 1: her descriptions of their conversations in her book do sound
Speaker 1: fairly paternalistic. Something she'd noted in her letter to Major
Speaker 1: Henry Douglas was that the Northern Piute did not know
Speaker 1: how to farm. They had been a migratory people that hunted, fished,
Speaker 1: and harvested things like pine nuts and root vegetables. Parish
Speaker 1: taught them farming and harvesting methods that would work on
Speaker 1: the reservation's land, and he paid them for the work
Speaker 1: they did. After about a year, Sarah also started working
Speaker 1: as a teaching assistant at the reservation school, which was
Speaker 1: run by Parrish's wife, But in June of eighteen seventy six,
Speaker 1: Parish was replaced by Major W. V. Reinhardt.
Speaker 2: A number of sources, including Life among the Piutes, say
Speaker 2: that this was because of Grant's peace policy and its
Speaker 2: focus on having Christian missions and charitable societies oversee the reservations,
Speaker 2: but Parish was raised by missionaries, and while I could
Speaker 2: not find a ton of des detail about Reinhardt's biography,
Speaker 2: I really didn't find any references to him being affiliated
Speaker 2: with any kind of Christian or charitable organization. He had
Speaker 2: served in the US Army during the Civil War, he
Speaker 2: had run a store and worked as a postmaster. It's
Speaker 2: possible that Parish was really replaced because of complaints about
Speaker 2: him by members of the local white community who didn't
Speaker 2: like what he was doing. Among other things, he had
Speaker 2: strongly advocated for the reservation's residents during a dispute over
Speaker 2: the border of the eastern part of the reservation.
Speaker 1: There had already been people who resisted being forced to
Speaker 1: live on the reservation, but problems really escalated after Reinhardt
Speaker 1: took over. He claimed that everything on the reservation belonged
Speaker 1: to the government, including people's crops. He collected the harvest
Speaker 1: and paid people partially in rations, which meant that people
Speaker 1: often had less food after being paid than they would
Speaker 1: have if they had just been allowed to keep what
Speaker 1: they grew. According to Sarah Winnemuck's account, he also paid
Speaker 1: them in goods from the reservation storehouse, but the price
Speaker 1: of those goods was a lot higher than people would
Speaker 1: have paid elsewhere. If they had actual wages, they could
Speaker 1: spend as they wanted. Some of the Northern Payute chiefs
Speaker 1: living at Malheur also accused Reinhart of selling liquor to
Speaker 1: the people living there. Reinhart also dealt with people through
Speaker 1: threats and intimidation, and sometimes physical violence, including beating a
Speaker 1: child that he said had laughed at him. Headman and
Speaker 1: spiritual leaders who had resisted Parrish's management of the reservation
Speaker 1: were even more vocal about Rehinehart. Yeah, everyone was having
Speaker 1: a difficult time, but existing resistance what was going on escalated.
Speaker 1: Sarah Winnemaka criticized Binhart really openly, and this included traveling
Speaker 1: to Camp Harney to report what was happening to the
Speaker 1: military authorities there. She wrote out a whole report that
Speaker 1: was signed by all the head men who were living
Speaker 1: at the reservation. In response, Reinhardt fired her as interpreter,
Speaker 1: banished her from the reservation, and accused her of being
Speaker 1: a drunken gambler and a sex worker. He vilified her
Speaker 1: in pretty much every avenue that was available to him,
Speaker 1: including his public statements, letters, he wrote to the Office
Speaker 1: of Indian Affairs and newspaper reports. Reinhardt also maintained that
Speaker 1: he was doing his job as it was expected of him.
Speaker 1: About seven hundred people were living at the reservation, and
Speaker 1: he claimed that the government wasn't providing the resources that
Speaker 1: would be needed to make themselves sufficient. It is true
Speaker 1: that government funds to the reservation declined while he was there. Also,
Speaker 1: when white ranchers started encroaching onto the reservation land and
Speaker 1: their cattle trampled the crops, he couldn't get federal authorities
Speaker 1: to do much to stop it. But his treatment of
Speaker 1: the people living there was corol enough that a lot
Speaker 1: of people thought he was intentionally trying to drive them
Speaker 1: away from the reservation. According to Sarah Winnemucca, after being
Speaker 1: presented with all their grievances, he did tell them that
Speaker 1: if they didn't like what the government wanted them to
Speaker 1: do on the reservation, they should quote go and live
Speaker 1: with the soldiers.
Speaker 2: As all of this was happening, after the divorce from
Speaker 2: her previous marriage was formalized, Sarah married a man named
Speaker 2: Joseph Satwaller. They also were divorced not long afterward, But
Speaker 2: there's really not much additional detail known about this relationship,
Speaker 2: Like there's a record that they got married, but almost
Speaker 2: nothing else about him has survived. There is a bit
Speaker 2: of a gap in Sarah's account after this marriage. So
Speaker 2: this is where we're going to pause and we will
Speaker 2: pick right up next time. I have some listener mail.
Speaker 1: Hooray. This listener mail is from Mariam after we had
Speaker 1: a discussion about places to get jobs for people interested
Speaker 1: in history or maybe getting history degrees. And this applies
Speaker 1: more to the US than the UK, which is where
Speaker 1: the original letter writer was from, but it's still interesting
Speaker 1: and cool information. So Miriam wrote, Hi, Holly and Tracy. First,
Speaker 1: I'd really like to thank you for the hours I've
Speaker 1: gotten to spend listening to you too, as I've driven
Speaker 1: all over the US recently. At the end of the
Speaker 1: Horace Walpole Part one episode, you discussed job advice for
Speaker 1: those looking for jobs in historian type careers. I happen
Speaker 1: to have a piece of advice for folks who love
Speaker 1: history and love discussing it with people, one that I
Speaker 1: spent twenty years doing. Try applying to work as a
Speaker 1: ranger with agencies like the National Park Service. The NPS
Speaker 1: has many different flavors of rangers, and the majority of
Speaker 1: park visitors get to interact with interpretive rangers who work
Speaker 1: with visitors to help them form emotional and intellectual connections
Speaker 1: to the resources of the NPS units, which in normal
Speaker 1: people speak means we're the rangers who get to do
Speaker 1: the ranger hikes, walks, talks, et cetera.
Speaker 2: We're the ones who get to meet in the visitor centers,
Speaker 2: who can try to answer the questions you have, and
Speaker 2: who get to swear in all the junior rangers. It's
Speaker 2: a great way to experience amazing parts of America's history,
Speaker 2: dive into deep depths, and share that knowledge with people
Speaker 2: who want to be there and want to learn. State
Speaker 2: park systems and concessionaires to the National Parks often hire
Speaker 2: those who have a background in history as well. It's
Speaker 2: a great option that isn't always discussed as a career
Speaker 2: in most history majors. As a pet tax, I've attached
Speaker 2: a couple of picks of the two cats who own
Speaker 2: the household. There's trouble, our older grand them and Sigfried Akaciggy. Yes,
Speaker 2: we are a classical music household, so the cats are
Speaker 2: named for opera characters. Siggy is the most orange of
Speaker 2: orange tabbys, with the possession of the shared brain cell
Speaker 2: only rarely, but we love him regardless. Trouble loves to
Speaker 2: lie and wait in the bathroom for one of us
Speaker 2: to lift her to the sink for fresh from the
Speaker 2: fawcet water. Thanks again for the many hours of company
Speaker 2: and learning, Miriam. Uh, we sure do have a picture
Speaker 2: of a kiddie cat sitting on the toilet looking like, hey,
Speaker 2: when can I have the fawcet water and an orange
Speaker 2: cat asleep in a very adorable pose.
Speaker 1: I like the Ciggy's place on the timeshare list for
Speaker 1: the brain cell. Maybe like that paperwork hasn't gone through. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it sounds like for anybody that doesn't note that is
Speaker 1: a common joke among orange cat owners that there's one
Speaker 1: brain cell they all share and they have to pass
Speaker 1: it around. They have to pass it around. Yeah, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for this email, Miriam.
Speaker 2: I had not even thought of, you know, working as
Speaker 2: a National park ranger as an option for history minded people,
Speaker 2: but it totally makes sense, especially since some of the
Speaker 2: national parks have a big focus on history in terms
Speaker 2: of their interpretive elements. I imagine a lot of national
Speaker 2: parks as a place to go outside and hike and explore,
Speaker 2: but that's not all there is to do there. Well,
Speaker 2: and we have done shows at parks yeah, and talk
Speaker 2: to the rangers who are extraordinarily knowledgeable about the history
Speaker 2: of the area.
Speaker 1: So I feel foolish that it never occurred to me either. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're also specifically national historic parks in the United States,
Speaker 2: So anyway, things I had never thought of as a
Speaker 2: career option in that way. I did think of being
Speaker 2: a park ranger when I was in college, and I
Speaker 2: worked at a state park for my summer job during college,
Speaker 2: but like I was thinking about the being outside and
Speaker 2: hiking and clearing trails and the least favorite part of
Speaker 2: that job, which is the cleaning of the public restrooms.
Speaker 2: So uh, anyway, thank you so much, Miriam for this
Speaker 2: email and the cat pictures. If you would like to
Speaker 2: send us a note about this or any other podcast
Speaker 2: or at History podcast at iHeartRadio dot com, and you
Speaker 2: can subscribe to our show on the iHeartRadio app or
Speaker 2: anywhere else you'd like to get your podcasts. Stuff you
Speaker 2: Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For
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