Sarah Winnemucca, Part 2

Summary

Summary of "Sarah Winnemucca, Part 2" - Stuff You Missed in History Class

Release Date: November 27, 2024 | Hosts: Holly Frey and Tracy B. Wilson | Produced by iHeartRadio

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Introduction

In Part 2 of their comprehensive exploration of Sarah Winnemucca's life, hosts Holly Frey and Tracy B. Wilson delve deeper into the challenges and triumphs of this remarkable Northern Paiute woman. Building upon the foundation laid in Part 1, which covered Winnemucca's early life and initial interactions with white settlers, this episode navigates through her advocacy efforts, personal struggles, and enduring legacy.

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Advocacy and Leadership at Mallory Reservation

[02:51] Tracy B. Wilson introduces the episode by recapping the deterioration of conditions at the Mallory Reservation following Major W.V. Reinhardt's tenure as Indian agent. The Northern Paiute community faced severe hardships, including starvation and inadequate supplies.

[03:22] Holly Frey describes a pivotal moment in 1877-1878 when Northern Paiutes sought Winnemucca's assistance to advocate for their dire situation. Despite lacking funds and fearing repercussions from Reinhardt, Winnemucca considered traveling to Camp Harney or Washington, D.C., to seek help. However, recognizing the potential dangers and the possibility of exacerbating tensions, she hesitated.

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The Journey to Rescue Her People

[04:00] Tracy B. Wilson recounts the continuous requests from her people, leading Winnemucca to gather support for a mission to Camp Harney. With the help of Paiute leader Egan, who managed to collect $30, and Winnemucca's own $20, she attempted to raise additional funds by selling her wagon and horses. Despite her efforts, conflict escalated into the Bannock War in May 1878, complicating her mission.

[05:38] Wilson explains that the Bannock War originated at Fort Hall in southern Idaho, with indigenous groups battling over dwindling resources and ancestral lands. As the war intensified, Winnemucca decided to act, believing that swift intervention could minimize loss of life.

[07:02] Wilson narrates Winnemucca's courageous decision to approach Captain Reuben Bernard of the U.S. Army for support. [07:43] Frey highlights a notable quote from Winnemucca:

"This was the hardest work I ever did for the government in all my life... I went for the government. When the officers could not get an Indian man or a white man to go for lower money. I, only an Indian woman, went and saved my father and his people." [10:08]

Through sheer determination, Winnemucca led her father, brother Lee, and cousins to safety, evading Bannock pursuers and securing an escort from the U.S. Army.

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Aftermath of the Bannock War and Return to Advocacy

Following the Bannock War's conclusion in mid-September 1878, the survivors faced further displacement, being relocated to the Yakima Reservation under harsh conditions. [19:39] Tracy B. Wilson details the tragic journey, noting significant loss of life due to exposure and illness.

In response to unfulfilled promises from the government, Winnemucca intensified her advocacy. [21:28] Frey explains her collaboration with Mary Peabody Mann, an educator and reformer, to co-author Life among the Paiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims. This work is celebrated as the first autobiography by a Native American woman, blending Winnemucca's personal narrative with the Northern Paiute's collective experience.

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Challenges and Personal Struggles

[38:36] Wilson discusses Winnemucca's mounting personal crises, including her husband Louis H. Hopkins' battle with tuberculosis and subsequent financial woes. Accusations of her being a "grifter" emerged, fueled by government smear campaigns and suspicions within her community.

Despite these challenges, Winnemucca remained steadfast in her mission. [41:33] Wilson describes her efforts to establish the Peabody School for Indian Children, which aimed to provide bilingual education while preserving Northern Paiute traditions. Her innovative approach contrasted sharply with the assimilationist policies of government and missionary-run schools.

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Legacy and Recognition

Sarah Winnemucca's tireless advocacy bore fruit when, on July 6, 1884, the Senate passed a bill permitting the Paiutes to return to the Pyramid Lake Reservation. However, lingering issues with squatters and unfulfilled promises hampered full restoration. [37:42] Frey notes the delayed formal designation of the reservation, which only occurred in 1936, long after Winnemucca's death.

Posthumously, Winnemucca's contributions have been acknowledged through various honors:

• 1993: Induction into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.
• 2005: A statue in her likeness was erected in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the U.S. Capitol, symbolizing her enduring legacy.

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Conclusion

Tracy B. Wilson encapsulates Winnemucca's multifaceted legacy, acknowledging both her forward-thinking advocacy and the complexities of her methods. [50:25] Wilson remarks:

"Sarah Winnemucca, who I admire in a lot of ways. And I think there are some ways where she was ahead of her time and others that are more complicated..."

Winnemucca's life story serves as a testament to resilience, leadership, and the enduring fight for indigenous rights and recognition.

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Listener Interaction

The episode concludes with a heartfelt listener email from Karina, sharing her personal connection to historical studies and expressing gratitude for the podcast's educational impact. Hosts Holly and Tracy respond warmly, fostering a sense of community and shared appreciation for history enthusiasts worldwide.

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Notable Quotes

• Sarah Winnemucca on Her Mission:
  "This was the hardest work I ever did for the government in all my life... I went for the government. When the officers could not get an Indian man or a white man to go for lower money. I, only an Indian woman, went and saved my father and his people." [10:08]

• Sarah Winnemucca on the Struggles of Her People:
  "Oh, for shame. You who are educated by a Christian government in the art of war... I am crying out to you for justice..." [13:42]

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Final Thoughts

Through meticulous research and engaging storytelling, Holly Frey and Tracy B. Wilson illuminate the pivotal role Sarah Winnemucca played in advocating for her people amidst the tumultuous backdrop of 19th-century American expansion. This episode not only honors Winnemucca's legacy but also underscores the broader narrative of indigenous resilience and resistance.

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For more episodes of "Stuff You Missed in History Class," visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or your preferred podcast platform.

Transcript

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[Holly Frey]

Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy B. Wilson.

[Holly Frey]

And I'm Holly Frey.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

This is part two of our episode on Sarah Winnemucca. Last time we talked about her early life and her Northern Paiute bands through first encounters with white people where we had left off. A lot of her people had been moved to Mallory Reservation, and their situation there got a lot worse after Major W.V. reinhardt became Indian agent. There is a gap of a year or so in her account at this point, and we're starting where her account.

[Holly Frey]

Picks up again in 1877 or 1878. While Sarah Winnemucca was living and working at a ranch owned by people named either Cooley or Corley, several Northern Paiutes traveled to see her to ask for help. Conditions had continued to deteriorate at Mallor Reservation, and that was where they were living. People were starving and they did not have enough basic supplies, including clothing. They thought that Sarah might be able to go with them to Camp Harney to ask for help, or maybe even go to Washington, D.C. to advocate on their behalf.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

But Sarah really did not have any money at that point to take a trip all the way to Washington, since she had already been expelled from that same reservation for reporting Reinhardt to Camp Harney. She also thought she might just make things worse if she tried to go there and talk to them, or that Reinhardt might have her arrested or sent away as soon as he learned that she was there. So this party left, but groups of people kept coming to see her. They came back several times over the following months, and eventually somebody told her that a lot of her people had been driven off of the reservation. A group of Paiutes and Bannocks had started camping alongside a river, and they were trying to survive there just on whatever fish they could catch.

[Holly Frey]

Sarah suggested things that they might try to do to advocate for themselves, including getting help from the reservation's new interpreter, but they said that this interpreter just did whatever Reinhardt wanted. So eventually Sarah agreed to return to Malor because of the risk of being sent away again. She started meeting with people immediately after arriving, including a Paiute leader named Egan and a man she identified as Bannock Jack. They dictated their accounts to her, which she wrote down, and she started preparing to go to Washington. Egan managed almost $30 to help pay for the journey, and she had about $20 that she had been paid to take someone with her when she traveled to Mallor. She planned to raise more money by selling her wagon and her horses.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Yeah. Egan had managed to collect this money by asking everyone to contribute anything that they had available to contribute. Sarah did not make it to Washington, D.C. at this point, though not long after setting out, she learned that ongoing conflict between the Bannock tribe and the United States had escalated into war. This had originated at Fort hall in southern Idaho, where people were facing a lot of the same issues as at Mellor, including a lack of food and basic resources and progressive loss of ancestral lands and traditional ways of living. A lot of the people at Fort hall had been moved there from very far away, were totally unfamiliar with the area. The introduction of pigs into this part of North America had also been a major issue as they dug up and ate the camas root that was a staple food source.

[Holly Frey]

The war had begun in May of 1878 with a bannock force led by Chief Buffalo Horn, who also had Paiute allies. Fort hall was roughly 300 miles away from Malheur, and while Sarah's brother Natchez and father, Winworth Muckah, had tried to maintain peace in the region, the conflict had been spreading. Egan, who we mentioned a moment ago, led a force that joined the Bannocks, as did Paiute spiritual leader Oites.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

The peacemaking efforts of Natchez and Winnemucca meant that there were already people who considered Sarah's entire family to be enemies and traitors. And people thought this about Sarah herself, especially after she offered her services to Captain Reuben Bernard of the US Army. In her mind, what led her to do this was that the best thing for everyone that would have the least loss of life would be if this war came to a speedy end. So, among other things, she offered to try to convince Paiutes in the area who had not joined the Bannock side to work as scouts or as messengers and to help negotiate a truce.

[Holly Frey]

She tried to convince two Paiute men to act as messengers and to travel to Camp Harney or to Malor and see if authorities there had any news about where the Bannock force was located. These men refused and also told her that they had heard her brother Natchez had been killed. So on June 13, 1878, Sarah went to Captain Bernard and told him that she would go and find out where they were herself. Along with a couple of men who had agreed to go with her, she would bring back her father and any other Paiutes who weren't joining the Bannock's side, Although he didn't think she was likely to succeed. Bernard got approval for this plan from General Oliver O. Howard. And he gave Sarah a letter with instructions for her to be provided with horses and help if she needed it.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

It really was not clear whether Sarah was going to find her father and his people encamped somewhere. Or if they had been taken captive. But soon after setting off, she and the men who were with her, who she identified as John and George, found a trail that they thought might belong to a Bannock party. Or possibly to her father's people. They followed this trail. They found places where people had clearly made camp. And spotted a burned down ranch along the way. Eventually, as they approached Juniper Lake in southeastern Oregon, they saw two men who looked like they were running from something. One of them turned out to be her brother Lee, who told her that he and her father and others had all been taken prisoner by the Bannocks. And were being held about six miles away. Lee also told her that their brother Natchez had not been killed. He had been sentenced to death for aiding the white people, but he had escaped.

[Holly Frey]

Sarah sneaked into this encampment and found her father. She told him to have the women and children start gathering firewood for the night. So they had a reason to get away from the camp. After it got dark, she led her father, her brother Lee, and three cousins out of the camp. Lee worked his way ahead of them to get some horses. And he sent his wife Maddie back with one for Sarah. In Sarah's words, by that point, it was like a dream. I could not get along at all. I almost fell down at every step, My father dragging me along.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

After they all rendezvoused at Juniper Lake, they made their way back to Captain Bernard. Some of them on horseback and some of them on foot. And sometimes being pursued by the Bannocks. They found food and water wherever they could. Toward the end of the journey, Sarah and Maddie rode ahead to get word to the army that they had people with them. And that they were being pursued. Troops were sent to escort everyone else back.

[Holly Frey]

In Sarah's words, quote, this was the hardest work I ever did for the government in all my life. The whole round trip from 10 o'clock June 13 up to June 15. Arriving back at 5:30pm Having been in the saddle night and day. Distance about 223 miles. Yes, I went for the government. When the officers could not get an Indian man or a white man to go for lover money. I, only an Indian woman, went and saved my father and his People.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

After this, Sarah and Maddie started working as scouts, guides and interpreters for General Howard. This meant that they were working against the Bannacks, but also against bands of their own people that had joined the Bannock side. Buffalo Horn had been killed on June 8, but battles between the US army and the Bannacks and Northern Paiutes and other indigenous allies continued until mid September of 1878. Egan was murdered toward the end of the war along with some of his family, reportedly by a chief from another tribe who hoped to both collect the bounty and avoid punishment for having joined this uprising. Oites and his force ultimately surrendered.

[Holly Frey]

After the war, the Northern Paiute bands who had not participated were sent to Camp Harney, Oregon, and told that from there they would be sent back to Malheur. Sarah encouraged them to go, but in her words, quote, some of my people said, we know there is something wrong. We don't like to go. But the officers told them there was nothing to fear. They would be sent to the Mallor Agency. My people asked me over and over again. I told them I did not know any more than they did. Therefore, I could not say. At last I said, what need have you to be afraid? You have not done anything. All the officers know that you have acted for the whites. General Howard knows all about you. None of you have fought the whites. You have all done your duty to the whites. During the campaign, her brother Natchez also told them the same thing.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

But instead of being sent back to Malheur, these Northern Paiute bands were sent to the Yakima reservation across the Columbia river, roughly 350 miles north. Sarah felt personally betrayed when she heard about this order. She was also afraid of what her people would think of her and whether they would ever trust her again. The commanding officer told her to keep the information to herself, but she later confided in Maddie, and Maddie told her, quote, sister, we cannot help it if the white people won't keep their word.

[Holly Frey]

These Paiute bands were forced to make this trip in winter, and they were given only about a week to prepare. Although she and Maddie collected as many furs and blankets as they could, they didn't have enough clothing to protect themselves from the elements. Maddie was also making the journey while badly injured after being thrown from a horse while trying to find a group of women who had escaped during the night.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

After describing Maddie's injury in her book, Sarah wrote, quote, oh, for shame. You who are educated by a Christian government in the art of war, the practice of whose profession makes you natural enemies of the savages so called by you, yes, you. You who call yourselves the great civilization. You who have knelt upon Plymouth Rock, covenanting with God to make this land the home of the free and the brave. Ah. Then you rise from your bended knees and seizing the welcoming hands of those who are the owners of this land which you are not. Your carbines rise upon the bleak shore and your so called civilization sweeps inland from the ocean wave. But oh my God. Leaving this pathway marked by crimson lines of blood and strewed by the bones of two races, the inter warrior and the invader. And I am crying out to you for justice, yes, pleading for the far off plains of the west, for the dusky mourner for whose tears of love are pleading for her husband or for their children who are sent far away from them. Your Christian minister will hold my people against their will not because he loves them, no, far from it. But because it puts money in his pockets.

[Holly Frey]

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[Tracy B. Wilson]

The Northern Paiute bands who had been sent to Camp Harney arrived at Yakima in February of 1879. A number of people died of exposure or illness along the way, including two babies who were born during the journey. People continued to die after arriving at the reservation, both from the ordeal they had just been through and because of the conditions they were in at the reservation. They were essentially put in a concentration camp there. In Sarah's words quote, they had a kind of shed made to put us in. You know what kind of shed you make for your stock in wintertime. It was of that kind. Oh how we did suffer with cold. There was no wood and the snow was waist deep and many died off just as cattle or horses do after traveling so long in the cold.

[Holly Frey]

Maddy was one of the people who died that spring, and within two years of their arrival, only 440 of the 510 people who had made the journey were still living. Those who survived faced increasing tension and hostility from members of the Yakama Nation who understandably didn't want to lose part of their limited reservation land.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Sarah sent her brother to San Francisco and then to Washington, D.C. to try to convince the government to give the Paiutes a reservation somewhere that was actually within their ancestral homeland. She also started teaching and working as an interpreter, although she found that she was paid a lot less working for an Indian agent on a reservation than she had been working for the military. Her pay just wasn't enough to cover her board while she was working. She wrote to Carl Schurz, who was Secretary of the Interior, for help, but didn't get a response.

[Holly Frey]

So she started publicly lecturing again, both to try to get support for her people, to be able to return home, and to try to support herself. She started a month long lecture tour at Platz hall in San Francisco in November of 1879. Her lectures incorporated Northern Paiute oral tradition with rhetoric that would be approachable for white audiences, including incorporating humor and satire to make her point about the plight of her people without making white audience members feel Attacked. She pointedly criticized Reinhardt, who at this point was trying to get the Paiute bands that hadn't been caught up in the fallout from the Bannock War to move back to Malur.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

For many of her public appearances, Sarah Winnemucca wore a costume that was inspired by Indigenous styles of clothing. As has been the case with some of the other Indigenous women that we have talked about on the show who tried to advocate for their people with white audiences. This wasn't what she would have worn in her day to day life among the Northern Paiutes. It incorporated elements from other nations and peoples, but they were all things that a white audience would recognize as Indigenous clothing. This, combined with the idea that being Winnemucca's daughter, made her the equivalent of Paiute royalty. So the San Francisco Chronicle, for example, called her the Princess Sarah. Sometimes her brother or cousins or other family members also appeared on stage with her in kind of a performance.

[Holly Frey]

Sarah also continually wrote letters to government and military officials and to newspapers. She sent a petition to Secretary Schurz asking for permission for her people to return to Mellor with the reservation placed under the control of Samuel B. Parrish or someone else who would be sympathetic to them.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

She also started working on a plan to visit Washington to try to meet with President Rutherford B. Hayes and the Secretary of the Interior. For a time, the federal government had really discouraged indigenous nations from sending delegations to the Capitol. But in the late 19th century, the government started to see it as an opportunity to sort of impress indigenous leaders, basically implying that trying to wage war against a nation with such a capital would be a useless exercise. Carlisle Indian Industrial School was also established in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1879. So a lot of indigenous leaders who visited the school from farther away also wanted to take the opportunity to Visit Washington, about 100 miles away from Carlisle. These visits to Washington were very tightly controlled on the part of the US Government, with indigenous delegations usually being housed at the same hotel, kept away from reporters, and escorted everywhere they went.

[Holly Frey]

The Winnemuccas did get to Washington, D.C. and they briefly met with the President. They also had two meetings with the Secretary of the Interior. Sarah did not wear her stage costume for these audiences. She wore the kind of clothing that would have been expected for a respectable white woman of the era. At the first meeting, Schurz mostly asked her for details about the Bannock War. But at the second meeting, after hearing her make her case, Schurz told Sarah that the Northern Paiutes who had been sent to Yakima would be given permission to return to Mallor Reservation and that they would be given land allotments. He later also promised that they would be able to pick up canvas tents when they reached Lovelock, Nevada.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

The Winnemuccas arrived back in Nevada on February 2nd of 1880, and they learned that Reinhardt had basically been running a smear campaign against Sarah Winnemucca in the newspapers while they were gone. Then they faced another setback when they arrived at Lovelock and they tried to pick up those tents. They were told that they would not be given any tents and that the only supplies they could get would be at Mellor. Then, once they got to Yakima, the Indian agent there told her he had not gotten any kind of letter from Scherz about allowing the Northern Pites to go back to Melor. The letter that Sarah had with her was not enough to satisfy him, and he also tried to bribe her to keep its contents a secret. Scherz never followed through on the tents or on the relocation back to Malor, and Mueller. Reservation was ultimately disestablished.

[Holly Frey]

In 1881, Sarah briefly met with Rutherford B. Hayes again when he was visiting Fort Vancouver, and she again tried to get approval for her people to leave Yakima Reservation. He seemed sympathetic to her, but he also didn't take any action. So Sarah encouraged her people to start what was essentially a campaign of direct action. They refused to farm or build houses or do anything that was expected of them at Yakima as an act of protest. This naturally made their living situation a lot harder, and it led to Sarah being expelled from the reservation. But after this, some families were given permission to leave.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

When Robert H. Milroy became Indian agent at the yakima reservation in 1882, he seems to have realized that the Northern Paiutes would never consider that to be their home. He started working with the people who wanted to leave to place them at reservations where other Paiutes were living. And he also didn't really try to stop people who just left on their own. Over the course of about four years, all of the remaining northern Paiutes left Yakima Reservation, but at that point, that was only about half of those who had arrived there in 1879.

[Holly Frey]

On December 5, 1881, Sarah married Louis H. Hopkins in San Francisco. On October 21 of the following year, her father, Winnemucca, died after a long illness, and the year after that she traveled to Boston. It's likely that people that she had met during her 1879 lecture tour in San Francisco had encouraged her to make this trip, Boston was known as a home for suffragists and reformers and other people who might have sympathy for her. After the end of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, some abolitionists turned their attention to indigenous people's rights.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

It's not entirely clear whether she might have been specifically directed to Elizabeth Palmer Peabody and her sister Mary Peabody Mann, which I imagine, like some of the other Peabodys in this area, might have said it Peabody. But those are the two Boston women who became a big part of Sarah's life and work from this point. Elizabeth Palmer Peabody was an educator and part of the Transcendentalist movement and is known for starting the first English language kindergarten in the United States. She came up in our episode on Milton Bradley. Mary Peabody man was a teacher and a reformer and the widow of educator Horace Mann, who is not the same Horace Mann who was friends with Horace Walpole.

[Holly Frey]

With the help of Mary Peabody Mann, Sarah Winnemucca wrote and published Life among the Their Wrongs and Claim Names, which we've been reading from in these episodes. This is believed to be the first autobiography written by a Native American woman, although some scholars frame it more as a work of autoethnography. It's not a book about Sarah Winnemucca's life in isolation. It's interwoven with the story of the Northern Paiute during her lifetime. This reflects the Northern Paiute worldview. It wouldn't have been appropriate for her to tell the story of herself alone. But beyond that, their oral traditions and their way of living were all very communal, with families making decisions collaboratively based on consensus and a strong sense of how everyone in the community was interrelated. This is also one of the reasons she is sometimes seen as a controversial figure, since there were times when she did things and made decisions on her own. Without that consensus, the book begins with Sarah's birth and the coming of white people to their land, and it ends with Secretary Mary Scherz's unfulfilled pledges to allow her people to return to Malheur.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Mary Peabody Mann wrote the preface to this book and added some explanatory footnotes, and she also assembled a lot of letters and testimonials about Sarah to include. At the end, she wrote in the preface quote, finding that in extemporaneous speech she could only speak at one time of a few points, she determined to write out the most important part of what she wished to say. In fighting with her literary deficiencies, she loses some of the fervid eloquence, which her extraordinary colloquial command of the English language enables her to utter. But I am confident that no one would desire that her own original words should be altered.

[Holly Frey]

The relationship between Mary and Sarah seems to have been collaborative and mutually beneficial. Sarah was known for being engaging and well spoken on stage, but but elements of written language were more of a struggle for her. So Mary helped her with her written English and with thoughts on how the book would be most effective for white readers. Sarah also expanded Mary's experience and worldview, which influenced Mary's work on her novel Juanita, a romance of real life in Cuba 50 years ago. That book came out four years later. That novel and advocating for the Northern Paiutes were Mary's two biggest projects in the last years of her life.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

In addition to helping Sarah get this book published, the sisters helped her promote it. This included Elizabeth Peabody writing letters to her connections in the Transcendentalist movement, including people like Ralph Waldo Emerson. And Sarah promoted it herself as she continued lecturing around the Northeast, doing more than 300 lectures between the spring of 1883 and the summer of 1884. It's it's not entirely clear where her husband was at this point and how much he supported all of this public work.

[Holly Frey]

We'll talk more after a sponsor break.

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[Don Toliver]

Com cocktail hey Bo. Hey Matt. Can you believe we have a whole bunch of wicked episodes coming up? Oh, I can't wait to share all of these amazing episodes with the readers, Katie's publicists and finalists. That's right, we're talking all things behind bringing this iconic musical to the big screen. And of course, we're taking you inside the world of this epic movie with all the exclusive details you won't hear anywhere else. It's Wicked in a way you've never heard before. Don't miss it and be sure to go watch Wicked in theaters starting November 22nd. Listen to Las Culturistas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Laura Layton]

Hey everyone, this is Courtney Thorne Smith, Laura Layton and Daphne Zuniga. On July 8, 1992, apartment buildings with pools were never quite the same as Melrose Place was introduced to the world. It took drama and mayhem to an entirely new level. We are going to be reliving every hookup, every scandal, every backstab, blackmail and explosion, and every single wig removal. Together, secrets are revealed as we rewatch every moment with you. Special guests from back in the day will be dropping by. You know who they are. Sydney, Allison and Joe are back together on still the Place with a trip down memory lane and back to Melrose Place. So listen to still the place on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Ed Zitron]

Hi, I'm Ed Zittron, host of the Better Offline podcast and we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google. Search Better Offline as you're unvarnished and at times unhinged. Look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel winning economists to leading journalists in the field. And I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong though. I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God, things can change if we're loud. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com.

[Honey German]

Hola, mi gente. It's honey German and I'm bringing you Gracias. Come again. The podcast where we dive deep into the world of Latin culture, musica peliculas and entertainment with some of the biggest names in the game. If you love hearing real conversations with your favorite Latin celebrities, artists and culture shifters. This is the podcast for you. We're talking real conversations with our Latin stars, from actors and artists to musicians and creators sharing their stories, struggles and successes. You know it's going to be filled with chisme, laughs and all the vibes that you love. Each week we'll explore everything from music and pop culture to deeper topics like identity, community and breaking down barriers in all sorts of industries. Don't miss out on the fun El Te Caliente and life stories. Join me for Gracias, Come Again, a podcast by Honey German where we get into Todolo Actual listen to Gracias has come again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

In 1884, Sarah Winnemucca was back in Washington, D.C. she presented a petition to Congress proposing that the northern Paiutes be restored to the Mellor Reservation, including those who had been sent to the Yakima Reservation after the Bannock War. She also spoke before the Senate Subcommittee on Indian affairs on April 22 of that year. She described a lot of what we've talked about so far, including her tribe's experiences with Reinhardt as Indian agent and the fact that most of the Paiute bands she was connected to had been forced to move to Yakima even though they had not participated in the Bannock War. The land that was part of Mallor had mostly been taken over by white white settlers, so she also suggested that a home might be made for them at Fort McDermott, where many of them had lived previously and which the army was expected to abandon.

[Holly Frey]

Ultimately, on July 6, 1884, the Senate passed a bill that allowed the Paiutes to return to Pyramid Lake Reservation. But much of that land was being inhabited by squatters, and nothing was really done to try to deal with that. And after this, Sarah also couldn't get hired as an interpreter or as a teacher. The reasons why are mostly speculative. Whether it had something to do with Reinhardt's smear campaign against her, all her speaking and her advocacy, or the fact that she'd been expelled from multiple reservations for actions she had taken to try to help and protect her people, it's also possible that the authorities making these hiring decisions understood that after everything that had happened so far and her public Persona as an Indian princess, a lot of people among her tribe just didn't trust her anymore.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Sarah was also dealing with a personal crisis. Her husband, Lewis, had contracted tuberculosis, and he had also run up a bunch of gambling debts and then tried to pay them off with forged checks. Sarah felt like she had no choice other than to use money from her book sales and lecture tours, along with money that the Peabody sisters had raised for the Paiutes to pay those debts off. Some of the white reformers she had been working with really saw her as the victim in all of this, but others started to suspect that she was some kind of a grifter.

[Holly Frey]

In 1885, Sarah went to live with her brother Natchez, and she started working on a plan to start her own school. The United States had started building a system of boarding schools to separate indigenous children from their families and cultures. We have talked about these schools in several previous episodes, including our two parter on the Fort Shaw Indian School girls basketball team and our three parter on Jim Thorpe. These schools purported to teach indigenous children what they would need to know to survive in a white world. But they were one component of an ongoing genocide on reservation day schools also fulfilled the same purpose as the boarding schools, but without sending the children away from their families.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Yeah, there's been a multi year investigation into these schools in recent years. And just a couple of days ago, as of when we are recording this, President Joe Biden formally apologized for this boarding school system. Sarah's school was not part of this, and it was different. Rather than forcing students to speak only in English and punishing them for speaking their own language or observing their own cultural practices the way the boarding schools did, Sarah's approach was bilingual. Her students would speak to her in their native language and then she would translate that into English in her words. Quote, I attribute the success of my school not to my being a scholar and a good teacher, but because I am my own interpreter and my heart is in my work. This school was also meant to preserve, not eliminate, Northern Paiute traditions and cultural practices among the students. She called it the Peabody School for Indian Children. Although I did read in one source that Elizabeth Palmer Peabody and her sister, they didn't really want it to be named after them. It did not say specifically why they were not comfortable with that.

[Holly Frey]

Sarah couldn't get money to build a schoolhouse on land on her brother's ranch. So she started with a brush shelter with benches for the students to sit on, or they would sit on the ground and use the benches as desks. She hoped her students would teach their parents English and how to read and write and maybe go on to become teachers themselves, following this same model of preserving their language and culture.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

The boarding schools and on reservation day schools weren't compulsory yet when she started this school, although they would become compulsory later. And Sarah got a lot of interest from families who did not want to send their children to one of these governments schools. In the spring of 1887, she got hundreds of applications. That was far more than she could possibly accommodate. But while she was getting lots of interest and potential students, she had a lot of trouble getting funding. She was basically doing the opposite of what the government wanted in government funded schools. Most missionary societies that had some kind of an interest in education for indigenous students were also funding schools that were focused on Christianization and assimilation. Although Sarah had become a Methodist at some point, this was not the focus of her school at all. She was also really critical of a lot of missionaries and a lot of missionary efforts, describing them as being focused on proselytizing and converting people rather than seeing to their basic needs and education.

[Holly Frey]

Her school faced some other challenges as well. Sarah had developed neuralgia, and she had some kind of recurring illness that may have been malaria, which had been a big problem on the Yakima reservation. At one point, a government official arrived to try to take her students to a boarding school, and she refused to let them. Both the school and her brother's ranch also faced a financial crisis when her husband took their harvest to San Francisco and offered Natchez only $50 when he returned. That was far less than the crop was worth, and the crop had been meant for both their income and their food. It seems like after this, Sarah kept the school going, at least in part through gambling.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Lewis Hopkins died of malaria on October 18, 1887, at the age of 38. That year, Congress passed the Dawes Act. The Dawes act authorized the breakup of reservation land, which had been designated for tribes collectively so that it could be individually allotted to tribal members. Instead, Sarah had written to Senator Henry L. Dawes with a number of suggested changes to this bill. One of them was that she argued that chiefs of each tribe should be the ones to decide how to allot the land. And since they would know the most about who would benefit from that, they would definitely know more than somebody like the Secretary of the Interior. These suggested changes were not incorporated into the bill, though Sarah thought the Dawes.

[Holly Frey]

Act would help her people. And Senator Dawes was one of the people that she thought had been honest and fair with her. But the Dawes act was catastrophic. Between 1887 and 1934, roughly 60% of land that had belonged to indigenous nations and people had passed out of indigenous communities, nearly all of it going to white people. And of course, that was the reservation land that Indigenous nations had been left with after centuries of settler colonialism, conquest, and genocide.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

The late 1880s was also when the spiritual movement known as the Ghost Dance was evolving among Indigenous peoples in parts of North America. This is an entirely separate topic. We cannot possibly do justice to it in a couple of sentences in this episode. There's an episode in the archive, but it's from prior hosts and it's only 12 minutes long. This was a movement that involved religion and spirituality, and as its name suggests, there was ritual dancing involved. One of the prophecies associated with this involved the idea of the end of the white person. It had a lot of influences of both indigenous culture and religion and also the other 19th century spiritual and religious movements that were going on. They all came together. Sarah and her brother Natchez were not directly involved in the Ghost Dance movement, but they did know about it. It arose in Northern Paiute bands in Nevada, and it spread to other tribes and nations, including the Lakota, for various reasons, including that idea of an almost end of the world ending of the white person. Focus on some of the prophecy around this. The United States found this movement to be a threat. It was not the kind of threat the United States imagined it to be, but the government thought it was a threat, and they deployed troops in response. And this ultimately led to the massacre at wounded knee on December 28th of 1890, in which US troops killed more than 250 Lakota.

[Holly Frey]

Sarah was afraid something similar might happen to her people. Since she could read English, she knew how the Ghost Dance movement and the massacre were being covered in white newspapers, and it was highly sensationalized. She also personally knew Colonel James W. Forsythe from the Bannock War. He was in Command of the 7th Cavalry at wounded Knee. So she tried to warn people of the possible danger. And the response to her efforts was mixed. She faced hostility from white newspapers for daring to suggest that there was a possible threat. Some Paiute bands started keeping watch for army soldiers, but others thought that Sarah was just once again accommodating white society rather than standing with her own people.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

Less than a year after the Wounded knee massacre on August 16, 1891, Sarah Winnemucca died at her sister Elma's house at the age of 47. A lot of sources give her cause of death as tuberculosis, contracted from her late husband. But most accounts of the last days of her life don't suggest that she was seriously ill, as she would have been if she were dying. Of tuberculosis at that time. Biographer Sally Zanjani cites the work of Patricia Stewart in her exploration of whether Sarah may have have been poisoned either accidentally or intentionally. The coroner, Joe Sherwood, gave Sarah's cause of death as too much chokecherry wine. That is also what he listed for Elma's late husband after he also died suddenly in 1899. Now, Sherwood did not have any medical training. He had no formal training to be a coroner. He was just kind of the guy who said he was the coroner. And it's possible that he just put too much chokecherry wine on people's death certificates when there was no obvious cause as to the cause of death. Or it is possible that there was something in the wine.

[Holly Frey]

Sarah Winnemucca was still well known at the time of her death. The New York Times ran an obituary for her on October 27, 1891, calling her the Paiute Princess and describing her as a remarkable woman.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

A historical marker for Sarah Winnemucca was placed at McDermott Indian Reservation in 1971. Fort McDermott was designated as an Indian agency after the military stopped its operations there in 1899, and it formally became a reservation in 1936. That was something that Sarah Winnemucca had been advocating for, but that formal designation didn't happen until after her death. Today, this is the home of the Fort McDermott Paiute and Shoshone tribe. There are other Northern Paiute tribes and bands still today, and other reservations for the Northern Paiute in addition to Fort McDermott. And of course, also not everyone who is Northern Paiute lives at a reservation.

[Holly Frey]

In 1993, Sarah Winnemucca was inducted into the Nevada Writers hall of fame. In 2005, the state of Nevada gave a statue of her to the National Statuary Hall Collection at the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. which accepts two statues from each state. There was some controversy about this, as there are still people who consider her to be an assimilationist or even a traitor. Members of her family were involved in the statue's creation to make sure it looked like they thought she would have wanted. It was designed by Benjamin Victor, inspired by a photograph of her. She's wearing what would have been her stage dress with fringe that looks like it's blowing in the wind, and she is holding a book in one hand and a shell flower in the other.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

And that is Sarah Winnemucca, who I admire in a lot of ways. And I think there are some ways where she was ahead of her time and others that are more complicated, which I'm sure we will talk some more about on Friday. I also have some listener mail. This is from Karina and I was a little alarmed by the subject line because the subject line says I think you might be stalking me. And I was like oh no, what have I done? There's nothing to be alarmed. Karina wrote. Hi Holly and Tracy. As an avid listener of the show for many years, a history lover, thank you for all you do and teaching me about historical events and figures from across the world that without you I would remain ignorant of despite the fact that I live in the uk. However, sometimes I find the topics you pick about UK history so accurately mirror my life and experiences that I have to ask are you actually stalking me? I am of course joking. Your recent two parter on the iconic Horace Walpole prompted me to write in though, as in some ways he has a big influence on my life life. I'm very familiar with his beloved Gothic villa, Strawberry Hill House. I actually went to St. Mary's University, which is adjacent to the house they are literally neighbors, and spent three years living and studying there. It is just as splendid and quirky as you imagine. In fact, some of our lectures and meetings were held in a suite within Strawberry Hill House, which if you looked closely, featured elements from the Castle of Otranto, including a miniature helmet incorporated into the fireplace. We of course studied the Castle of Otranto as part of our Gothic Literature course and it was truly something special to be reading a novel in the same place it was written centuries before and to study Gothic literature at the very birthplace of the genre. The house has had a renovation in recent years and is still open to visitors, just as it was in Walpole's time. It is only around 35 minutes on the train from Central London. The station is even called Strawberry Hill and it is totally worth a visit if you are ever in the uk. I'm afraid I don't have any pictures to share for the pet tax. Karina goes on to talk about living in a place surrounded by deer, pheasants, rabbits, squirrels, horses and farm animals. Below is a picture of the autumnal view from our patio door. I also have an adorable toddler who keeps me busy and enjoys listening to your podcast with me on long car rides. She sometimes falls asleep while listening, but don't take it personally. Anyway, thanks for all you do. You both help keep history alive. Lots of love Karina. I love all of this about having your college classes. Dreamy Strawberry Hill House.

[Holly Frey]

Dreamy.

[Tracy B. Wilson]

And I love this view off of the back patio of the house looking out at a woodland. This looks like it happens maybe in the late fall, early winter. A lot of the trees don't have their foliage anymore. And I will also say if you want to send pictures of deer, pheasants, rabbits, squirrels, horses and farm animals, that is also great. I took a little trip to the Delaware River Valley area of New York a couple months ago and boy did I take so many pictures of deer because they were everywhere. So thank you so much for this email. If you'd like to send us a note about this or any other podcast or at history [e-mail] and you can subscribe to our show on the iheartradio app or wherever else you like to hit your podcasts. Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcast from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Here's to Turkey Day, the favorite day of the year for many. From cozying up by the fire to watch the parade to gathering in the kitchen to whip up casseroles, it's a time of joy and togetherness. And here's to the Chinette brand for making it all a little easier with the Chinet Classic Collection. No need to worry about cleanup up. Plus Chinat Classic plates and bowls are compostable, helping not just to keep the sink clean, but also leaving less of a mess for future generations. So here's to being together. Here's to us. All of us. Find a local [e-mail] do you like podcasts, music and audiobooks? Because when you subscribe to Amazon Music Unlimited, you get all three in one app. Imagine listening to your favorite podcasts and music on the go to work, school, the gym, or better yet, vacation. Now imagine being on vacation with your favorite audiobook from Audible and then listening to a new one every month from a huge selection of popular titles. That sounds like a pretty good vacation, right? Audible is now included on Amazon Music Unlimited. Download the Amazon Music app now to start listening Terms apply.

[Don Toliver]

Hey Bo. Hey Matt. Can you believe we have a whole bunch of wicked episodes coming up? Oh, I can't wait to share all of these amazing episodes with the readers, Katie's publicists and finalists. That's right, we're talking all things behind bringing this iconic musical to the big screen. And of course, we're taking you inside the world of this epic movie with all the exclusive details you won't hear anywhere else. It's Wicked in a way you've never heard before. Don't miss it and be sure to go watch Wicked in theaters starting November 22nd. Listen to Las Culturistas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ed Zitron]

Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into Text Elite and how they've turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google Search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech brought to you by an industry veteran with nothing to lose. Listen to Better offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from.

[Honey German]

Welcome to Gracias. Come Again, a podcast by Honey German where we get real and dive straight into todolo actual y viral. We're talking Musica los and all things trending in my cultura. I'm bringing you all the latest happening in our entertainment world and some fun and impactful interviews with your favorite Latin artists, comedians, actors and influencers. Each week we get deep and raw life stories, combos on the issues that matter to us, and it's all packed with gems Bun Straight up Comedia and that's a song that only Nuestra Gente can sprinkle. Listen to Gracias. Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast.