Life Among The Piutes Summary

In Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins’s text, Life among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims, she tells of her life as daughter to the chief, witnessing and engaging in her Piute tribe's struggles to remain on their inherited lands and maintain authority while at the same time attempting to stabilize relationships with their “White relatives” according to their cultural traditions. During her lifetime, she became an important figure for her people, posing as a voice for them when they were in need. The text is an extended explanation of this role she had in her tribe. Through the work, she enabled a deeper interpretation from the perspective of the Piutes about their culture during her time. Particularly, the Bannock War is documented in Sarah’s text

so that readers can come to know of the event, those that were involved, and how they personally interpreted what they experienced.

The War was a great turning point in the fidelity of the Piutes to the Whites, and Sarah Winnemucca played a key role in this change of direction.

During the Bannock War of 1878, Sarah Winnemucca served as a messenger, scout, and interpreter for General O. O. Howards. Her familiarity with the military dates back to when she was just a child. Her Grandfather Truckee initiated contact between the Piutes and the Whites through what he called a “rag-friend,” which was in fact a letter signed by a General documenting Chief Truckee’s service in the Mexican War (Winnemucca 27). The idea of this “rag-friend,” as Groover Lape Noreen explains, “represents within [their] oral community the possibility for open communication that defies time, space, and cultural prejudice” (259). This affiliation with the

Whites became unique in the tribe, especially for Sarah, enabling her with ethos that allowed her to give a voice for her people. Her text gives record of fourteen letters in which she communicates on behalf of her people with military leaders later in her life, specifically during the time of the Bannock War. Her position as an Indian employed by the military, “enhanced her personal credibility and provided her knowledge about military culture” so that she could “create logical appeals arguing for her people's fair treatment” (Eves 10). The things she learned there on the military front, thus provided a future where she was prepared and justified to speak and inform White audiences on the East coast “about the federal Indian policies and reservation corruption” (Noreen 259). Such speech was needed for the Indians during this time of the war since prejudice towards Native Americans was stirred into the minds of the Whites. It took much effort from Winnemucca to provide physical and cultural sustenance for her people.
Sarah describes in her text that her Piute community and culture acted in the Bannock War to voice their condemnation for the White’s negative acts towards them.

As stated by Noreen, “some historical accounts attribute the war to Native Americans' growing frustration over White encroachment” (273-4). Particularly, the Whites were grazing their livestock on the Native’s crops and thus tensions rose. Natives also refused to assimilate to the White’s culture and beliefs, in addition to the issues with cultural power. However, Sarah provides a personal interpretation in her text giving attribution for the cause of the war by saying that two Bannocks "got drunk and went and shot two white men. One of the Indians had a sister out digging some roots, and these white men went to the women… and caught this poor girl, and used her shamefully.” She continues saying, “the other women ran away and left this girl to the mercy of those white men, and it was on her account that her brother went and shot them" (p. 139). Thus, she interprets the war to be caused not by cultural issues, but rather on the basis of physical survival, namely showing the stereotype of the drunken Indian, but going further to show the humanity of his reasons for killing: to avenge his family. This instance served in the text as a greater piece and interpretation of the Bannock War and the unrest between the Whites and the Piutes. The event of the war, therefore, was interpreted in Winnemucca’s text as a product

of misconduct between communities as they fought to sustain their physical survival. Despite Grandfather Truckee’s hopes to be relatives with the Whites, the Bannock war was evidence of their growing distance in differing cultures.