Tag Archives: Sarah Winnemucca

Life Among the Piutes, Sarah Winnemucca

Sarah_Winnemucca_Life_Among_the_Piutes

Sarah Winnemucca

“When I think of my past life, and the bitter trials I have endured, I can scarcely believe I live, and yet I do; and, with the help of Him who notes the sparrow’s fall, I mean to fight for my down-trodden race while life lasts.” –Sarah Winnemucca, in her book “Life Among the Piutes.”

Sarah Winnemucca became famous as a lecturer, on the topic of her people’s plight, as she had some clever things to say. For example, she noted that the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor said “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me…” So she said perhaps she ought to conduct her people out to San Francisco, put them on ships, and sail them around to bring them in through New York harbor, and maybe perhaps then America would treat her people like the statue promised.

I highly recommend this book. It has some very interesting opinions about the Donner Party, among other things.  Some people dispute the recollections of Sarah Winnemucca, but were they present there, like she was?

I have formatted Sarah Winnemucca’s book in PDF, and you can download it here or on my downloads page.