Gertrude Simmons Bonnin was a Native American author, editor, and activist. She was born in 1876 on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. As a child, she attended a boarding school where she faced pressure to assimilate and had her hair cut, which caused her great anguish. Later, she attended Earlham College where she found success in writing, music, and public speaking. Throughout her life, she wrote about preserving Native American culture and traditions. She was a founding member of the Society of American Indians, which advocated for Native American rights.
2. Author’s Life Born in 1876 on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. Her mother was Tate Iyohi Win, or “Reaches The Wind Woman,” otherwise known as Ellen Simmons. Her father was a white man named Felker who left his wife. She never had a relationship with her father and did not recognize him.
3. Author’s Life Continued At age of eight, the Quaker missionaries began to visit the Yankton Reservation and gathered children to educate them in a boarding school and assimilate them into the Anglo culture. They tricked her into believing this would be a great opportunity. She begged her mom to go. Her mom hated Whites but ended up letting her go. While at boarding school, she encountered intense pressure to assimilate. They began the transformation by cutting her hair. She remembered the anguish she felt.
4. Author’s life continued She only stayed at the boarding school for three years and then went back to live at her mothers from age 11 to 15. Despite the trauma and hardships she went through at the boarding school, her desire to learn made her want to return to school. At age 19, she disobeyed her mother again and went to Earlham College in Indiana. The years at Earlham College were the happiest of her life.
5. Author’s life continued Her talents blossomed as she discovered her gifts for writing, oratory, and music. She became an accomplished pianist and violinist and won several contests. In her speeches, she encouraged the whites to accept the Native Americans as their fellow man and give them equal opportunity. While some were accepting, she encountered bigotry. An unidentified illness prevented her from finishing her degree at Earlham and this illness remained with her throughout her life.
6. Author’s life continued Since she could not return to the reservation out of humiliation, she turned her attention to writing as an outlet for her guilt of abandoning her mother as well as her culture. In attempt to reclaim her Sioux heritage, she published articles and short stories in periodicals such as The Atlantic Monthly and Harper’s Magazine. She also assembled a collection of Sioux myths, Old Indian Legends, in which she recounted the stories she heard as a child.
7. Author’s life continued In 1902 she married a Sioux man, Raymond Bonnin. Seven months after they married they had their first child. There was no work for Bonnin on the Yankton reservation so the family had to relocate to Utah. The beginning of the 20th century saw the coming of age of young Native American people like her. In 1911, the Society of American Indians (SAI). The members of SAI reorganized the benefits of such things as education and health care offered by Anglo society and saw themselves as the bearers of these blessings to their race. She was the only woman on the executive council of SAI.
8. Author’s life continued She spent the last few years of her life in poverty and despair. In spring 1937, her son’s poor health brought him, his wife, and their four children to live with them. Their debt’s mounted, and her health began to decline. She died on January 25, 1938, and was buried, as the wife of a veteran, in Arlington National Cemetary.
9. Impressions of an Indian Childhood My Mother This short story is about the hardships her mother faced when the “pale faces” forced them to move from their home into the western country. Her mom’s sister and uncle died on this trip. This is why her mother was bitter towards the “pale faces.” The Legends This short story is about the importance of the legends to their culture.
10. Impression of an Indian Childhood The Coffee-Making The story is how she made a really bad pot of coffee for her grandfather. She was trying to be a generous hostess but ended up making the coffee on a dead fire. Her grandfather still respected her efforts. The Big Red Apples This short story is about how the white missionaries were bribing the Indian children to attend the boarding school in the East. They were bribing them with the talk of apple trees and the orchards of the East that are not common in the reservation. The story ended with her on the train heading to the boarding school.
11. The School Days of an Indian Girl The Land of Red Apples This short story is about her arrival in the East after being on the train. She arrived at the boarding school but it wasn’t what she was hoping it to be, crying for her mother, brother, and aunt. She cried herself to sleep that night. The Cutting of my Long Hair This short story is about her first day at the school. She remembered feeling scared and out of place. The school was trying to have them conform to Anglo Saxon ways by taking away their moccasins in exchange for shoes and cutting their long hair.
12. The School Days of an Indian Girl Iron Routine This story is about the daily routine the Indian kids went through. They lived in poor conditions and were expected to be on time to class and never sick. As a result, she grew bitter and started to test the chains which tightly bound her individuality. Four Strange Summers This story is about her return back to the reservation, but she wasn’t accepted back and was out of place. Because of this turmoil, she decided to return back to the Eastern school.
13. The School Days of an Indian Girl Incurring My Mother’s Displeasure This story is about her starting college against her mother’s will. She began to enter oratorical contests and received applause from her classmates as well as the judges awarding her first place. However, when she attended a state wide contest, she experienced ridicule from the “pale faces” who put up a white flag making fun of her. She ended up winning a prize and laughed when the white flag was taken away in defeat.
14. Trivia She was born on Yankton Reservation in South Dakota on February 22, 1876, the same year the Sioux and other Indians defeated General George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Even though her mother disliked white people, her husband and Gertrude’s father was a white man. Gertrude loved her college years so much and it was her most inspiring time for her stories. Gertrude’s American Indian name is ZitkalaŠa, which means “red bird.”
15. Trivia Continued Despite her bitter experience, she had come to believe that education was the salvation of her people and she endorsed the Indian policy that promoted schools. When her mother became disaffected with her father, Felker, she took her brother’s surname of Simmons.
