A Translator
It is difficult to explain all of Sarah's acts as a translator so briefly. So, this will be an overview that informs the excerpt:
She was hired at first by the reservation to interpret exchanges between her people and the government. This happened at Fort McDermitt, after atrocities in the years around 1868 against her people that did not leave too many of them left. Fort McDermitt is on the Nevada-Oregon border. You can see it here.
She first worked for Samuel Parrish, and felt that he took care of the reservation well for the short time he was there. She even married a liutenant at the time. (who abondoned her) Parrish was soon replaced by an Agent Rinehart in 1876 though, with no respect for the Paiutes. He demanded them work and gave them measly rations and compensation.
" Disciplinary Spaces "
Concept from Rosalyn Collings Eves, Southern Utah University, thank you
Military Forts
On the Reservation
In Lectures
Winnemucca wrote that she "spoke five tongues," including three indian languages along with English and Spanish. Incredibly, Winnemucca is able to communicate extremely well with reservation agents, which is why this entry considers her rhetorics within the disciplinary spaces" for her that Eves describes. They are essential to considering to place-based rhetoric, discussed within this path. Her editor assisted her with describing some of what she wanted to communicate in this autobiography. It was part of the writing process, she was a more comfortable speaker. (Zanjani)
In fact, she essentially "writes to become non-native." (Sorisio) This is another type of translation, that strongly interacts with cross-cultural ideas.
The analogy of a translator, though, well describes Sarah's plight. She was conflicted between two different narratives, two sets of communication values, and of course tried to mediate the dialogue with her activism. However, we can further consider how her strongly considered positionality came from a place " in between. "
- Native culture does not generally circulate print, they circulate spoken stories. Winnemucca speaks a new language in white colonial culture just with publishing. Cover
- Winnemucca bases identity in a contact zone, where cultures of white colonists and indigenous peoples were crossed p. 8 and 9
- Winnemucca constantly challenges herself with double consciousness, though the concept had not yet been defined p. 6 and 7
- Sarah's people likely heard about the Donner Party and various settlements in the area of Pyramid Lake and Washoe Valley because of the contact zone p. 10 and 11
- Sarah's father, Chief Winnemucca, never trusted colonists the way her grandfather Truckee did. p. 14 and 15
- A letter from John Frémont, after the Mexican War was called a "rag-friend" by Chief Truckee, and he constantly used it for his credibility to any other white people. p. 18 and 19
- The tribe did not understand any concept of enslavement that existed in the colonist's world. p. 22 and 23
- Sarah began to identify with white culture after her experiences in school, but always kept a distrust because of the struggles her people faced. p. 26 and 27
- Sarah discusses what would be the victorian "Hypocritical Religious Gloss" by settlers that she laments (Zanjani, 124) p. 50 and 51
- Malheur Reservation Experience: Agent Rinehart at the Malheur Reservation provided the Piutes with little rations and treated them poorly, igniting Sarah's anger against the system. p. 54 and 55
- Example of Sarah's double-consciousness thought process. p. 28 and 29
- The Winnemucca's goo to a ferry near Stockton, run by Hiram Scott and Jacob Bonsall at the beginning of the narrative. The trip was a major impression on Sarah’s first experience with settlers.
- Native people were susceptible to the many European diseases brought by white colonists, though the contact zone p. 40 and 41
The pages of the Winnemucca selection, Chapters 1 and 2, are laid out here for reference. If you need to, you may click any one of them to "turn" to that page at any time. Because, this little note will be in each page of the Winnemucca path!
Table of Contents, Page 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57
