First Book by a Native American Woman
Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims
Notes: The first book written by an American Indian woman and the first by a Native American west of the Rocky Mountains. It is part personal memoir, part a record of White-Paiute contact, and part a call for justice.
Sarah Winnemucca was a Paiute born near the Humboldt River in northern Nevada about 1844. She learned English, worked as an interpreter for the US army, and became a well-known public speaker advocating for her people's return to Nevada after their forced relocation to eastern Oregon and then to Washington. In the 1880s she stayed with Elizabeth Peabody in Boston, where she wrote this memoir. Peabody's sister, Mary (Peabody) Mann edited the book and helped arrange for its publication.
268 pages.
Edition + Condition: First edition (first printing). A very good copy in the publisher's red cloth (also seen in green and blue). Spine darkened, a bit of fraying to the spine ends. Previous owner's name, A Van Bebber, on the front pastedown.
Publication: Boston: Printed for the Author. For Sale by Cupples, Upham & Co, G. P. Putnam's Sons, and by the Author, 1883.
Item No: #361045
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