Zitkála-Šá (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin)

Zitkála-Šá (Lakota for Red Bird; February 22, 1876 – January 26, 1938), also known by her missionary and married names Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, was a political activist in the 20th century. Through out her life she wrote nine books that brought attention to the life of an Indian American person in the 20th century, including American Indian Stories, Old Indian Legends, American Indian Stories and other writings, Dance in a Buffalo Skull, American Indian and Old Indian Legends, Impressions of an Indian childhood Dreams and Thunder, Iktomi And The Ducks And Other Sioux Stories and The School Days Of An Indian Girl, and An Indian Teacher Among Indians. She won the Indiana State Oratorical Contest in 1896 after she gave her speech "Side By Side." In 1916 she was elected as the secretary of the Society of American Indians. She worked there until 1919. In 1924 she helped to pass the Indian Citizenship Bill. In 1928 she joined the Merriam Report, which was a group of people working together to investigate and show the rights of American Indians at the time. In the middle of December 1928 she gave another speech speaking about the group's findings. She started the council of American Indians in 1926 and spent the rest of her working life working there.