Sarah Winnemucca Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Sarah Winnemucca
OCCUPATION: Activist, Journalist
BIRTH DATE: c. 1844
DEATH DATE: October 06, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH: Humboldt Lake, Nevada
Full Name: Sarah Hopkins Winnemucca
AKA: Thoc-me-tony
AKA: Tocmectone

Best Known For

Sarah Winnemucca was a member of the Native American Paiutes nation, an activist for her people and the first Native woman to publish in the English language.

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Sarah Winnemucca

APA Style

Sarah Winnemucca. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 02:47, May 25, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/sarah-winnemucca-9534523.

Harvard Style

Sarah Winnemucca. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/sarah-winnemucca-9534523 [Accessed 25 May 2013].

MLA Style

"Sarah Winnemucca." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 25 2013, 02:47 http://www.biography.com/people/sarah-winnemucca-9534523.

MHRA Style

"Sarah Winnemucca," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/sarah-winnemucca-9534523 [accessed May 25, 2013].

Chicago Style

"Sarah Winnemucca," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/sarah-winnemucca-9534523 (accessed May 25, 2013).

CBE/CSE Style

Sarah Winnemucca [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 25] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/sarah-winnemucca-9534523.

Bluebook Style

Sarah Winnemucca, http://www.biography.com/people/sarah-winnemucca-9534523 (last visited May 25, 2013).

AMA Style

Sarah Winnemucca. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/sarah-winnemucca-9534523. Accessed May 25, 2013.

Synopsis

Sarah Winnemucca was a member of the Native American Paiutes nation, an activist for her people and the first Native woman to publish in the English language. Her autobiography, Life Among the Paiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims, tells the story the Paiutes and their encounters with Europeans. She campaigned vigorously for a suitable home for her people. She married three times, all to white men.

Profile

Educator, interpreter, and writer. Born around 1844 near Humboldt Lake, Nevada. A member of the Northern Paiutes, Sarah Winnemucca was a Native American activist in the 1800s. She excelled at languages and served as an interpreter for the U.S. Army in 1860s and 1870s. Hoping that her work to help her people, Winnemucca was disappointed by the treatment she and other Paiutes received at the hands of the government after the Bannock War ended.

The daughter of a chief, Sarah Winnemucca campaigned vigorously for a suitable home for her people. She toured the country, giving lectures to drum up support for her cause. While Winnemucca was unsuccessful in her efforts, she did help preserve the history and culture of her people by writing her autobiography, Life Among the Paiutes, in 1883. Having spent some time as a teacher earlier in her life. she helped establish a school for Native American children in Nevada the following year. Unfortunately the school later closed because of insufficient funds.

Married three times, Sarah Winnemucca wed her first husband, Edward Bartlett, a lieutenant, in 1871. She then married Joseph Satwaller in 1878. Her last husband was Lewis H. Hopkins. The couple married in 1881 and stayed together until Hopkins’ death in 1887. Winnemucca died on October 16, 1891.