1
00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:01,920
Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

2
00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,400
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey I'm Eats, and you're listening to This

3
00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:10,520
Speaker 1: Day in History Class, a podcast where we bring you

4
00:00:10,600 --> 00:00:23,480
Speaker 1: a slice of history every day. Today it's February m

5
00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:30,000
Speaker 1: The day was February two, eight seventy six. Native American

6
00:00:30,080 --> 00:00:34,760
Speaker 1: activist and writer Zitkala Shaw, also known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnen,

7
00:00:35,240 --> 00:00:39,519
Speaker 1: was born on the Yanktin Reservation in South Dakota. Zitkala

8
00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:43,560
Speaker 1: Shaw's mother, named Reaches for the Wind, was a yankedin Sioux.

9
00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:48,120
Speaker 1: Her father was a white man named Felker, but Felker

10
00:00:48,200 --> 00:00:52,000
Speaker 1: abandoned the family early on in Zikla Shaw's mother eventually

11
00:00:52,080 --> 00:00:57,480
Speaker 1: married another man named John Hastings Simmons. Zikala Shaw gave

12
00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:01,360
Speaker 1: herself her name, which means red bird in the Lakota language.

13
00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:06,319
Speaker 1: Did Collishaw spent her early childhood on the reservation. There,

14
00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:09,640
Speaker 1: she listened to traditional stories with characters that she would

15
00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:13,039
Speaker 1: later include in her first book. But when she was

16
00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:16,080
Speaker 1: around eight years old, she left the reservation to go

17
00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:20,760
Speaker 1: to a Quaker missionary school in Indiana. Kalasha's mother did

18
00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:23,760
Speaker 1: not support her attending this school because she did not

19
00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:28,360
Speaker 1: trust the missionaries to educate Native American children did. Collishaw

20
00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:32,000
Speaker 1: returned to South Dakota after three years of study, but

21
00:01:32,280 --> 00:01:35,320
Speaker 1: four years later she left the reservation again to go

22
00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:38,560
Speaker 1: back to school. One of the schools she went to

23
00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:42,880
Speaker 1: in the following years was Earlham College in Indiana. While there,

24
00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:46,559
Speaker 1: she got second place in a statewide oratory contest, which

25
00:01:46,600 --> 00:01:51,120
Speaker 1: resulted in her first publication. She also studied music and

26
00:01:51,120 --> 00:01:53,880
Speaker 1: played the violin. This led her to study at the

27
00:01:53,880 --> 00:01:57,280
Speaker 1: New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and teach at

28
00:01:57,320 --> 00:02:01,600
Speaker 1: the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. She did not really

29
00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:04,520
Speaker 1: care for the time she spent at Carlisle, and she

30
00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:08,560
Speaker 1: disagreed with the school's founder, Richard Henry Pratt, who supported

31
00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:12,960
Speaker 1: teaching Native American students agrarian and domestic skills rather than

32
00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:17,679
Speaker 1: academic subjects. Around this time that college, Shaw began publishing

33
00:02:17,720 --> 00:02:21,840
Speaker 1: her work in magazines like Harper's and Atlantic Monthly. In

34
00:02:21,919 --> 00:02:25,480
Speaker 1: nineteen oh one, the publisher Gin and Company released her

35
00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:30,480
Speaker 1: first full length book, Old Indian Legends. That year, when

36
00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:33,959
Speaker 1: she visited her mother, she met another Yankton's who named

37
00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:37,640
Speaker 1: Raymond Vonnen. They got married, had a child, and moved

38
00:02:37,639 --> 00:02:41,720
Speaker 1: to her reservation in Utah, Collishaw worked as a clerk

39
00:02:41,760 --> 00:02:44,799
Speaker 1: and teacher. Her musical and writing careers took a back

40
00:02:44,880 --> 00:02:47,040
Speaker 1: seat to the rest of her work, though she did

41
00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:51,079
Speaker 1: collaborate with composer William Hanson on an opera called Sun

42
00:02:51,160 --> 00:02:55,360
Speaker 1: Dance that premiered in Utah and nineteen thirteen. At this point,

43
00:02:55,720 --> 00:02:59,840
Speaker 1: Collishaw was turning more toward activism. She became involved with

44
00:02:59,880 --> 00:03:03,920
Speaker 1: the Society of American Indians or s AI, a reform

45
00:03:04,040 --> 00:03:09,040
Speaker 1: organization formed at Ohio State University in nineteen eleven. The

46
00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:12,120
Speaker 1: group was run by Native Americans, and it aimed to

47
00:03:12,160 --> 00:03:16,440
Speaker 1: preserve their way of life while advocating full American citizenship.

48
00:03:16,960 --> 00:03:20,360
Speaker 1: It focused on government reforms as well as activities like

49
00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:25,080
Speaker 1: increasing Native American employment in the American Indian Service, which

50
00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:29,880
Speaker 1: was the agency that managed Native American affairs. Did Collishaw

51
00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:33,280
Speaker 1: wrote a poem that was published in the Society's quarterly magazine,

52
00:03:33,639 --> 00:03:37,520
Speaker 1: and in nineteen sixteen she was elected secretary of the organization,

53
00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:42,320
Speaker 1: a position she held until nineteen nineteen. Did Collishaw and

54
00:03:42,360 --> 00:03:45,800
Speaker 1: her family moved to Washington, d c. There, she became

55
00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:50,160
Speaker 1: involved with many other organizations concerned with Native American rights

56
00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:55,280
Speaker 1: and reforms. She served as editor of SAIS Publication, American

57
00:03:55,280 --> 00:03:59,760
Speaker 1: Indian magazine, writing essays about issues such as land retention

58
00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:04,960
Speaker 1: and self determination. She lobbied lawmakers and toured across the

59
00:04:05,080 --> 00:04:09,400
Speaker 1: US in support of Native American citizenship. She spoke out

60
00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:13,400
Speaker 1: on the conditions of poverty on reservations, detailing how food

61
00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:17,520
Speaker 1: was scarce and opportunities for education and employment were few.

62
00:04:18,680 --> 00:04:21,680
Speaker 1: But because she had one foot in white society and

63
00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:25,200
Speaker 1: the other in Native American communities, she did garner the

64
00:04:25,279 --> 00:04:30,159
Speaker 1: distrust of some Native Americans. After the SAI disbanded and

65
00:04:30,279 --> 00:04:34,480
Speaker 1: the Indian Citizenship Act passed, said Collishaw and her husband

66
00:04:34,839 --> 00:04:38,599
Speaker 1: founded the National Council of American Indians. Its goal was

67
00:04:38,640 --> 00:04:41,640
Speaker 1: to make a quote constructive effort to better the Red

68
00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:45,000
Speaker 1: race and make its members better citizens of the United States.

69
00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:50,520
Speaker 1: It promoted pay and Indianism as opposed to tribalism. Though

70
00:04:50,520 --> 00:04:54,320
Speaker 1: the organization foundered that Collishaw continued to lecture on Native

71
00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:59,560
Speaker 1: American reforms and rights. She died in ninety eight. Her

72
00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:03,280
Speaker 1: writing noted for describing the tension between her Native American

73
00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:07,640
Speaker 1: roots and her white education. Her advocacy has been criticized

74
00:05:07,640 --> 00:05:10,320
Speaker 1: by some people who note the impact of assimilation on

75
00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:14,400
Speaker 1: cultural identity, but she is considered an influential activists in

76
00:05:14,480 --> 00:05:18,880
Speaker 1: Native American history as she advocated for Native American civil rights,

77
00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:23,640
Speaker 1: women's rights, education, and the preservation of Native American culture.

78
00:05:25,279 --> 00:05:27,599
Speaker 1: I'm Eve stuff Coote and hopefully you know a little

79
00:05:27,640 --> 00:05:31,400
Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. If you

80
00:05:31,400 --> 00:05:34,200
Speaker 1: haven't gotten your fill of history yet, you can find

81
00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:38,800
Speaker 1: us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t d i

82
00:05:39,320 --> 00:05:43,080
Speaker 1: h C podcast And if you would like to write

83
00:05:43,080 --> 00:05:45,719
Speaker 1: me a letter, you can scan it, turn it into

84
00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:48,839
Speaker 1: a PDF, and send it to us via email at

85
00:05:48,880 --> 00:05:52,800
Speaker 1: this day at I heart media dot com. I hope

86
00:05:52,839 --> 00:06:05,800
Speaker 1: you liked this show. We'll be back tomorrow with another episode. Yeah.

87
00:06:07,120 --> 00:06:09,159
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the I

88
00:06:09,200 --> 00:06:11,840
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

89
00:06:11,880 --> 00:06:12,640
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.