Review - Chief Sarah

Chief Sarah: Sarah Winnemucca's Fight for Indian Rights by Dorothy Nafus Morrison

rating: 4 of 5 stars

I picked up this book after someone donated it to the library where I work. At first it looked like young adult level material, but I don't think it was necessarily meant for that audience--it's simply a short, well-written, concise account of one aspect of a very dark part of U.S. history, namely, the slaughter of largely innocent natives and the Bureau of Indian Affairs' forcing them onto reservations.

Chief Sarah, as she was called, was a member of the Paiute tribe. At first afraid of the white settlers, who looked like owls to the natives, she gradually learned their language and their ways, serving as a bridge between them and her people. Natives of Nevada, her people were forced to move to multiple states, at last being sent to Washington state and the Yakima reservation where many of them died of exposure and starvation. While some of them wanted revenge for their treatment, Sarah and her family of tribal leaders always promoted her grandfather's vision of peace, and were considered friends and guides by the U.S. Army. However, the Bureau of Indian Affairs at that time tended to lump all Indians together, having no concept that separate tribes might have different philosophies and intentions. The ever-brave Sarah went as far as traveling to Washington D.C. on behalf of the Paiutes, but was seemingly thwarted at every turn.

The book left me angry at the ignorance of that time--the belief that all Native American tribes were the same, and must be "civilized," which meant being taught to settle down in one place and learning how to farm. Some of the leaders of the reservations actually helped them do that, but most of them mistreated them and stole the money that was meant for their care. All of this was mostly because settlers wanted to "own" the land that they roamed freely.

When some white men came upon native encampments, they would slaughter everyone they found down to the women and children. Then if the remaining members of the tribe tried to take revenge, the settlers would see it as a "unprovoked" attack and send out more men to take down the rest of the tribe.

I admired this courageous woman, Sarah, whose tribe found themselves in such a lose-lose situation. She believed that education was the key to peace, not violence. Still, it saddens me that the tribes of today are still forced to either stay on a reservation, or integrate with a society that in some ways is just as foreign today as it was 150 years ago.


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