Zitkala-Ša’s (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin) Sojourn in Utah

Zitkala-Ša, or Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, is a celebrated Yankton Dakota writer and activist. She lived in Utah from 1902-1917.

Born on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota in 1876, Gertrude Simmons or Zitkala-Ša left the reservation at age eight to attend White’s Manual Labor Institute in Indiana. This assimilation-focused boarding school instilled Euro-American and Christian values in its students. She attended Earlham College and became an increasingly skilled writer and musician. She taught at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. After a while, she became critical of the emphasis on assimilation and acculturation and resigned. She began writing under the name Zitkala-Ša (Red Bird) around 1889, publishing essays in national magazines such as Harper’s Monthly. Her writings often criticized the practice of many reformers and stressed the importance of Native identities.

Zitkala-Ša married Raymond Bonnin in 1902 and they moved to Whiterocks, Utah, where Raymond worked for the Indian Bureau on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation. In 1903, they had a son, Raymond “Ohiya” Bonnin. A young, orphaned Ute boy named Oran Curry and Old Sioux, a survivor of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, also lived with them. 

The Bonnins lived in Utah from 1902 to 1917, except for several months spent on the Standing Rock Reservation in the Dakotas. It was while away at Standing Rock that she converted to Catholicism. After returning to Utah, she kept up a correspondence with Father William Ketcham, director of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, expressing her wish to introduce Catholicism to the Utes.

In 1908, she met music teacher William Hanson. They eventually collaborated in writing and composing the Sun Dance Opera, which debuted in Vernal, Utah, in 1913. The Sun Dance is a religious ceremony practiced by some Natives, especially Plains Peoples. The opera combined Native rituals with European-styled performances. It is unclear what motivated her to collaborate on this opera, which could be viewed as a violation of religious respect. Interestingly, the Sun Dance was outlawed on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation at this time, and the opera allowed Ute performers to participate in it to some degree. At the time of its debut, a Vernal newspaper praised it as greatly pleasing the audience.

During her first few years in Utah, Zitkala-Ša taught at the Whiterocks Boarding School. She also spent time working for the Indian Service. In 1913, she joined the Society of American Indians, a national organization advocating for Native rights. She was elected secretary of the SAI in 1916. After moving to Duchesne, Utah, in 1915, she created a Ute community center. While in Utah, she began an anti-peyote campaign. Zitkala-Ša and her husband Ray moved to Washington, D.C., where she continued her activism. Zitkala-Ša’s time in Utah was one of “relative obscurity." Yet, during her fourteen years there, she continued to evolve and to advance the causes she believed in.

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