American Indian Stories

“I have read them with exquisite pleasure….There is in them a note of wild, strange music.” -Helen Keller

Zitkala-sa, renamed Gertrude Simmons by Catholic missionaries, was one of the first Sioux women to write the stories and traditions of her people. The first set of stories in this collection is autobiographical. Zitkala-sa describes living in her mother's wigwam on the Yankton Reservation at the edge of the Missouri River where she is "as free as the wind that blew my hair, and no less spirited than a bounding deer." Until she is eight years old, Zitkala-sa's only fear is "that of intruding myself upon others." Then, despite her mother's objections, she is enticed by visions of endless apple trees and the excitement of riding on "the iron horse" and leaves her mother for school in the east. Although Zitkala-sa goes on to become a teacher, she never stops questioning "whether real life or long-lasting death lies beneath this semblance of [white] civilization." The second half of the book contains stories based on her family's tradition of oral history. The Trial Path describes the course of tribal justice after a murder. Tusee, A Warrior's Daughter, is the courageous and shrewd woman who risks everything for her husband-to-be. The son in The Sioux must kill twice to save his father from starvation. Written with elegant simplicity more than seventy years ago, Zitkala-sa's American Indian Stories remain a powerful plea for justice. First published in 1921 as a collection.

CONTENTS

Impressions of an Indian Childhood

The School Days of an Indian Girl

An Indian Teacher Among Indians

The Great Spirit

The Soft-Hearted Sioux

The Trial Path

A Warrior's Daughter

A Dream of Her Grandfather

The Widespread Enigma of Blue-Star Woman

America's Indian Problem