Place-Based Rhetoric
A connection to lands is sacred to native peoples. Primarily, Sarah had to first navigate out of her original native culture (in the first act of Turner's concept of liminality) by understanding how her location mattered to her rhetorical means. It was the focal point of her activism on reservation policy. She travelled with her people in the areas of Pyramid Lake that you can see pictured in the map and called Pyramid Lake her home. (Zanjani) It was then taken away by colonialists in a couple of different ways. Settlers began to use the land for farms and homes. Eventually, Piaute people were moved to the reservation area at Malheur, in Oregon.
So Sarah's rhetorical fight was to get back lands stolen by reservations. To reclaim her place. Further, Eves posits that her location and specifically "position in disciplinary spaces" was not only a goal for Winnemucca, but it was also a tool she recognized and used by sending letters from military forts, or leading her people in the absence of her father - the chief Winnemucca. Her background from two cultures informed her of a different cultural value colonials had of land, unlike any of her people, that made her smart in her communication methods with them.
*This analysis is careful not to generalize Sarah's people too often just as "natives," since the Piutes and Washoes would not consider themselves the same people, for example.*
- The area of Sarah's band of Piutes is mentioned in the table of contents, p. 5
- Sarah's people were subject to many relocations, between Camp McDermit, the Malheur Reservation, and the Yakama Reservation. p. 10 and 11
- Chief Truckee assisted General Fremont in the Bear Flag Revolt, a step in the war for the U.S. to colonize Mexican land. p. 8 and 9
- Chief Winnemucca wrestled with ever going to war with colonists because he knew the war-power of the white people. p. 18 and 19
- The reservation itself was a rhetorical space, and Winnemucca was well aware of her position in her community p. 20 and 21
- Winnemucca, Sarah's father, continued to be a pacifist and later on Sarah would use Military Forts as a Rhetorical Space to fight an intellectual battle.
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
