Content Category
Literary Criticism
Abstract/Description
The writings of Dakota author Zitkala-Ša include her memoirs from her elementary education in a white boarding school, as well as some original Native American stories. While there has been much modern scholarship on how Native American women have reconciled their racial and gender identities, I will be examining the link between Native American feminism and assimilation in the boarding school system, exploring the specific aspects of Native femininity that Zitkala-Ša highlights in “A Warrior’s Daughter.” This short story outlines a young Dakota woman’s effort to rescue her lover from the hands of an enemy tribe. Through the main character, Tusee, Zitkala-Ša calls for Native women to accept their important tribal responsibilities, including motherhood, and embrace their ethnic identities. Tusee’s characterization is also used to denounce the oppressive rules of white femininity imbued in Native American girls by the assimilative education system used in the Western boarding schools of the time. Likewise, I will also investigate Zitkala-Ša’s political work and advocacy for Native American women, examining how her own efforts to halt assimilation and fight for social equality are mirrored in her works of fiction, specifically in “A Warrior’s Daughter.” By analyzing her arguments in the short story as well as her political activism, I uncover Zitkala-Ša’s efforts to protect important gender roles that are central to the propagation and preservation of Native American customs and traditions, thus allowing future generations to maintain their tribal ways of life.
Copyright and Licensing of My Content
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Origin of Submission
as part of a class
Faculty Involvement
Mike Taylor
A Dakota Woman: Zitkala-Ša’s Fight for Native Gender Identity
The writings of Dakota author Zitkala-Ša include her memoirs from her elementary education in a white boarding school, as well as some original Native American stories. While there has been much modern scholarship on how Native American women have reconciled their racial and gender identities, I will be examining the link between Native American feminism and assimilation in the boarding school system, exploring the specific aspects of Native femininity that Zitkala-Ša highlights in “A Warrior’s Daughter.” This short story outlines a young Dakota woman’s effort to rescue her lover from the hands of an enemy tribe. Through the main character, Tusee, Zitkala-Ša calls for Native women to accept their important tribal responsibilities, including motherhood, and embrace their ethnic identities. Tusee’s characterization is also used to denounce the oppressive rules of white femininity imbued in Native American girls by the assimilative education system used in the Western boarding schools of the time. Likewise, I will also investigate Zitkala-Ša’s political work and advocacy for Native American women, examining how her own efforts to halt assimilation and fight for social equality are mirrored in her works of fiction, specifically in “A Warrior’s Daughter.” By analyzing her arguments in the short story as well as her political activism, I uncover Zitkala-Ša’s efforts to protect important gender roles that are central to the propagation and preservation of Native American customs and traditions, thus allowing future generations to maintain their tribal ways of life.