Sarah Winnemucca

Sarah Winnemucca (ca. 1844-1891) was active as a peacemaker, teacher, and defender of the rights of Native Americans. She published Life among the Paiutes, Their Wrongs and Claims and founded a school for Indians.

Sarah Winnemucca was a skilled interpreter, an Army scout, a well-known lecturer, a teacher, and the first Indian woman to publish a book. She was born near Humboldt Lake about 1844 in the part of Utah Territory that later became Nevada, the fourth child of her father, Chief Winnemucca, called Old Winnemucca and mother, Tuboitonie. They named her Thocmetony, meaning Shell Flower. Later she took the name Sarah, a name she kept the rest of her life. The homelands of the Northern Paiutes extended over parts...