Remember the Ladies
This is a project for my Women's Studies class. I believe that great women are horribly underrepresented in history, and I think that needs to change. In an attempt to raise awareness about women's contributions to world history, I made 48 posters, each dedicated to a different historical figure, and put them up around campus. While you are reading, here are things to keep in mind:
1. These may not include enough info for your liking, but these have to fit on an 8x11 piece of paper, so I have to be choosy.
2. If you find factual errors or have a problem with a post, let me know and I'll do what I can to fix it. Also, feel free to reblog with corrections.
3. If you have a problem with one of the reading suggestions, again, let me know what would be better and I'll fix it. (I haven't read all of them because I'm only 20 and I have not had enough years in my life to read every single one of these books.)
4. I can handle criticism, as long as it is constructive and communicated in a civilized manner, and not full of aggression and menacing angryness. I'm only a freshman and probably an idiot, so a gentle touch is needed.
5. This is an extra credit project and something I'm doing in addition the other mountains of work that I have, so some of these were written in about 15 minutes. Sorry. It's the college way. So enjoy the blog. Happy history-hunting. :)
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Sarah Winnemucca was born at Humboldt Lake in Nevada. Her father was a Paiute chief. When she was a young girl, her grandfather, who was on good terms with whites, took her to Carson City to be educated, and she soon became one of the very few Paiutes in Nevada to be able to read and write in English. After the first Paiute War, Sarah and her family moved to the Malheur Reservation, which was reserved for the Paiute and Bannock people. Sarah took a job teaching and interpreting for the local Indian Agent, Samuel Parrish, who was generally liked by the residents. After four years, Parrish was replaced by William Rinehart, who refused to pay the Paiute for their agricultural labor, and conditions on the reservation greatly deteriorated. In 1878, everyone on the reservation left, and the Bannock began raiding white settlements, triggering the Bannock War. During the war, Sarah acted as an interpreter for the army and helped track the Bannock. She personally helped her father and 75 other Paiute escape from the Bannock camp. Unfortunately, when the white soldiers came to remove the Bannock to the Yakama Reservation in Washington, they didn’t distinguish between the Bannock and the remaining Paiute, and they were all taken together. Sarah devoted herself to campaigning for the right of the Paiute to return to their old reservation, Malheur. She wrote memoirs and pamphlets (she was the first Native person to publish works in English), which were noted for their eloquence. She went on a speaking tour in California, which was very well-received, and even made a trip to D.C. to argue the case for her people to federal officials. Unfortunately, while the officials promised to help, they never provided the funding. Meanwhile, the Indian agent at Malheur started a vicious smear campaign against Sarah, accusing her of being a drunkard and a prostitute. However, the military men who had served with her defended her and attested to her brave character. She continued to lecture around the country, and in her later years opened a school for Paiute children. She is a controversial figure today, but thankfully, many people still remember her as a courageous and outspoken woman, and not an alcoholic.
Further reading:
Life Among the Paiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims by Sarah Winnemucca
