Sarah Winnemucca

Sarah Winnemucca (1844–1891) was a Northern Paiute activist, educator and writer, born near Humboldt Lake in what is now Nevada. She came from an influential family that kept friendly relations with Anglo-American settlers, and her life sits at the meeting point of two cultures and two languages, which explains much of her importance.

She grew up between her people and the world of the settlers. She studied at schools in Nevada and California, learned English and Spanish, and between 1860 and 1865 performed with her family in Virginia City and San Francisco, billed as "A Paiute Royal Family". In 1865 a cavalry attack killed her mother and most of her extended family's band. From 1871 she worked as an interpreter for the army and the Indian service, and later travelled to Washington to lobby for the release of Paiutes interned after the Bannock War.

During the 1880s she toured the eastern United States giving lectures about her people. Her 1883 book is considered the first known autobiography written by a Native American woman. She also founded a private school for Native children in Lovelock, Nevada. Her legacy is debated: she is praised for her activism, but criticised for exaggerating her social standing and for advocating assimilation, which divided Paiute opinion. In 2005 Nevada gave a statue of her to the U.S. Capitol.