Winnemucca << `wihn` uh MUHK uh >>, Sarah (1844?-1891), was a Native American who won fame for her criticism of the United States government’s mistreatment of her people, the Paiute. Winnemucca began to speak out against the government as early as 1870. She later established two schools for Native American children.
Winnemucca, called Thoc-me-tony (Shell Flower) by the Paiute, was born near Humboldt Sink in what is now Nevada. During the late 1860’s and the 1870’s, she served as an interpreter, guide, and scout for various government officials. In the 1870’s, she protested such abuses of the Paiute as seizure of their lands and an Army attack on a Paiute settlement.
In 1880, Winnemucca met on her people’s behalf with President Rutherford B. Hayes. The next year, she lectured in Boston and other Eastern cities on the government’s mistreatment of the Paiute. She also wrote a book called Life Among the Paiutes: Their Claims and Wrongs (1883). In 1881, Winnemucca opened a school for Native American children at Vancouver Barracks, an Army post in the Washington Territory (now Washington). She later founded a school for Paiute children near Lovelock, Nevada. She died on Oct. 17, 1891.
