[Thanksgivingis a hugelyfraught holiday for us AmericanStudiers, but I also have a ton I’mthankful for. So this year I wanted to combine those two perspectives byhighlighting indigenous voices, past and present, for whose contributions toour collective conversations I’m profoundly appreciative!]

As was thecase with yesterday’s subject William Apess, Sarah Winnemucca is a figure aboutwhom I’ve had the chance to write a good deal:

As acentral part of this We’re Historypiece on Malheur in Oregon.

As thefocus of a chapter in my book RedefiningAmerican Identity: From Cabeza de Vaca to Barack Obama (2011).

Andnumerous times on this blog, including hereon how reading her autoethnographic book changes our sense of the West, hereas a context for one of my favorite TV characters, and hereas part of a post on fraught and crucial questions of “authenticity” andidentity.

There’s alot that I love about Winnemucca’s voice, as captured so powerfully in thataforementioned book, Life Among thePiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims (1883). But most of all I love the way shecombines self-reflection and humility with pride and confidence, blends her hugelycomplex individual story with impassioned activism, recognizes the most multilayeredrealities yet refuses to allow them to stop her work. We can see that withparticular clarity in the book’s final final two sentences: “Finding itimpossible to do any thing for my people I did not return to Yakima, but afterI left Vancouver Barracks I went to my sister in Montana. After my marriage toMr. Hopkins I visited my people once more at Pyramid Lake Reservation, and theyurged me again to come to the East and talk for them, and so I have come.” I’mso grateful that she did!

Nextthanks tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Indigenous voices or texts you’d highlight, or other thanks you’dshare?