Gertrude Simmons, violinist and librettist, was born on the Yankton Sioux Agency Reservation, SD to a Yankton Sioux mother and a Euro-American father, adopting the native name Zitkala-Ša in her teens. She is recognized one of the most influential Native American activists of the 20th century. Cathleen Cahill shares the story of Zitkala-Ša, Gertrude Simmons Bonnin’s Fight for Suffrage and Self-Determination.
Cathleen D. Cahill is the Walter L. Ferree and Helen P. Ferree Professor of Middle-American History at the Pennsylvania State University. She earned her PhD at the University of Chicago in Illinois and focuses her research on every-day experiences of ordinary people, primarily women. She has published multiple articles and two books, including Federal Fathers & Mothers: A Social History of the United States Indian Service, 1869-1933 in 2013 which won her a book award from the Labriola National American Indian Center at the Ari-zona State University Library. She also published Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the Suffrage Movement in 2020. Dr. Cahill has spoken at many venues including for the National Park Service, the Library of Congress, and the National Portrait Gallery. Her work has been excerpted in Ms. Magazine, Time, and the New York Times. She also serves as the Steering Committee Chair for the Coalition for Western Women's History.
This video was made possible by our partner, the South Dakota Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.