Zitkala-Sa
1876–1938
also known by the missionary-given name Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, was a Sioux writer, editor, musician, teacher and political activist. She wrote several works chronicling her youthful struggles with identity and pulls between the majority culture and her Native American heritage. Her later books in English brought traditional Native American stories to a widespread white readership for one of the first times.
With William F. Hanson, she co-composed the first American Indian opera, The Sun Dance, premiered in 1913. She founded the National Council of American Indians in 1926 to lobby for rights to American citizenship and civil rights.