Sacagawea
is a well-known heroine in United States history. She was the Shoshone woman
who accompanied her French-Canadian husband on the Lewis and Clark journey of
exploration to the West in 1804-1806, interpreted for them with the tribes they
met and saved their lives. There are memorials to her and she has been
celebrated on this blog; to retrieve the post, enter sacagawea in the Search
box on the right. It turns out though, with a little digging, that she only
represents the tip of the iceberg of interpretation between the native peoples
and the Europeans, and that in many instances the communication passed through
women. Luckily there is a magnificent storehouse of research about these women.
It’s North American Women: A Biographical Dictionary by Gretchen M. Bataille
and Laurie Lisa (see Source below). There isn’t room here to give more than a small
sample of the riches to be found in it. Perhaps some enterprising graduate
student can make a thesis topic of it. The order below is chronological and the
entries have been edited.
We may
notice the varied roles that these outstanding women played on behalf of their
peoples, their chiefs and their cultures as well as of their languages. As well
as for their own people, they interpreted for the American military, the
Congress, health and medical services, schools, anthropologists and
ethnologists. It is often overlooked how important NPIT interpreters have been throughout
the world for these last two clienteles. In spite of the racial and
anti-feminine prejudices of their age, these women succeeded in getting a good
education with the encouragement of their parents, who understood where the
future lay.
—Sarah
Laura Winnemucca Coltelli HOPKINS [Thocmetony, Tos-me-to-ne, Shell Flower, Sono
meta, Somitone, Sa-mit-tau-nee, White Shell] (c. 1844–1891), was a major figure
in the history of the Paiute tribe and a spokeswoman for the plight of her
tribe and of Indian peoples in the later part of the nineteenth century. Granddaughter
of Chief Truckee, who had guided whites across the Great Basin, and daughter of
Chief Winnemucca, an antelope shaman and leader, she became a legendary and
controversial figure during her lifetime. Because Sarah’s first encounter with
whites had terrified her, she did not want to travel from Humboldt Sink, in
Nevada, to California with her family in 1847, but encounters with generous
settlers along the way dissolved her fear. In California she attended a convent
school, where she learned to write and speak English. She also learned Spanish
and knew three Indian dialects. By adolescence her skill as a translator and
her position in a prominent family brought Sarah the role of interpreter at
Camp McDermitt in northern Nevada, and later at the Malheur Reservation in
Oregon. She also became the personal interpreter and guide for General Oliver
O. Howard during the Bannock War in 1878. Sarah’s skills rapidly gained her
recognition as spokeswoman for her people and led to lectures in major western
cities on behalf of justice for Indians. Winnemucca’s autobiography is not only
a record of her own life but also a history of her tribe and a strong plea for
redress, as the title indicates: Life Among the Paiutes: Their Wrongs and
Claims. The intent of her autobiography was to bring her crusade for justice to
a wider audience and to convince white society that the Paiutes were decent
people willing to coexist with whites. Her narrative ends with a plea to
Congress to restore land and rights to her people. Winnemucca’s crusade… for
justice and an end to corruption in administration of reservations met with
limited success… Before her death, she returned to her people to open a school
for Paiute children
Susan LAFLESCHE
PICOTTE (1865–1915) see photo above, was born on the Omaha Reservation in Nebraska on June 17,
1865.. [Her father,] a chief of the Omaha, was half white and half Ponca; his wife
was white and Omaha. The influential LaFlesche family supported bringing white
education to the reservation and made certain that each of their children
received a good education. Susan LaFlesche attended school on the reservation,
then accompanied her elder sister Marguerite to the Elizabeth Institute for
Young Ladies in New Jersey. Three years later, in 1882, she returned home to
teach at the mission school. In 1884 LaFlesche began her studies at the Hampton
Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia, a school for blacks and Indians,
graduating with honors in the spring of 1886. In October of that year, she
entered the Woman’s Medical College in Philadelphia. She graduated at the head
of her class in 1889, becoming the first American Indian female doctor of
medicine. LaFlesche returned to the Omaha Reservation upon completing a
four-month internship in Philadelphia and worked as a physician at the local
school. A few months later, she was appointed physician for the Omaha Agency...
The work was difficult, and her duties extended beyond the purely medical; she
also served as adviser, teacher, interpreter, and nurse... Despite her ill
health and against the advice of family and friends, LaFlesche announced her
intention to marry Henry Picotte in 1894.. a Yankton Sioux... Susan and Henry
settled in Bancroft, Nebraska, where she practiced medicine and he farmed…
Picotte continued to serve her people during this period. She acted as
interpreter and helped many families and individuals during the transition
Omaha society was experiencing. After Henry’s death in 1905, Picotte was
appointed missionary to the Omahas by the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions…
She was politically active as well, and in 1910 headed a tribal delegation to
the nation’s capital, where she addressed the secretary of the Interior on the
issues of Omaha citizenship and competency. But it was in the area of health
care that Picotte made her biggest contribution. She insisted that the Omaha
adopt modern hygienic practices… She also represented the Omahas in white
society, serving, from time to time, as their representative to the government.
But more often, Picotte was the one who spoke for the Omahas in an unofficial
but nonetheless clearly recognized capacity. She represented them to groups
from the East and from Nebraska, ranging from women’s clubs to missionary,
educational, and medical organizations. Until her death in 1915, she was an
effective role model for hundreds of young Omahas.
—Flora Jay
Ann Cox ZUNI (1897–1983), was born into the Badger clan of the Zuni, who live in
a New Mexico pueblo. Her father was a member of the Bear clan and an
accomplished artist, and her mother was an accomplished potter. The Zuni are famous
for their jewelry. They speak a language which is unrelated to the languages of the other pueblo peoples and continue to practice their traditional shamanistic religion with its regular ceremonies, dances and mythology. Flora received her education at the boarding school at
Black Rock and became one of the few Zuni of her time who could speak English.
Later, this skill allowed her to become an interpreter for several different
groups, including anthropologists, Bureau of Indian Affairs employees, Public
Health Service employees, missionaries, and teachers. Noted as an interpreter
and storyteller of great skill, Zuni worked with the anthropologists Alfred
L.Kroeber, Ruth Benedict, Ruth Bunzel, and Elsie Clews Parsons in collecting
Zuni folk tales, prayers, and linguistic material. Bunzel said of Zuni, “Flora
had excellent command of English and translated her own texts and interpreted
for her father, mother, and sisters and helped with the revision and analysis of
all texts.” She also became an entrepreneur and saleswoman who took in boarders
and sold turquoise on commission to help support her family. Zuni remained a
traditional Zuni throughout her lifetime; she strongly believed in the
importance of passing traditions from one generation to the next.
The range
of these biographies, which extend to the present day, emphasizes once again
the universality of NPIT interpreting.
Source
Laura M. Bataille and Laurie Lisa. Native American Women: A Biographical dictionary. https://epdf.pub/native-american-women-a-biographical-dictionary-5ea7a83151463.html or click [HERE]. There’s a wealth of other references in this work.
Image
Susan Picotte
Source: Nebraska Studios
