Red Bird Sings: The Story of Zitkala-Sa, Native American Author, Musician, and Activist (review)

Gertrude Simmons Bonnin of the Yankton Sioux, later known as Zitkala-Sa, bridged the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the white and Indian cultures. Brought up in an Indiana missionary school from the age of eight, she experienced both the demeaning boarding-school routines intended to strip students of their culture, and the opportunities to develop her talent as a writer and a violinist. Through the brief double-page spread chapters that mark highlights of her life, readers follow her school days, her later career as a political advocate for Indian rights, and her struggle to reconcile her determination for personal advancement with feelings of guilt for abandoning her family. First-person narration adapted from Zitkala-Sa's own writings and supplemented with "additional primary and secondary sources" is frequently challenging in the formality of its turn-of-the-century tone; indeed, children who can negotiate this text may well be up to reading her autobiographical stories in the original. Zitkala-Sa is still an interesting figure, however, and one who rarely turns up in collective or individual biographies; this account offers insight not just into her achievements but into the complexity of identity. Stiff, sweetly doll-like figures in Capaldi's mixed-media illustrations suggest a younger audience than is likely to connect with the content. Closing notes, as well as print and online resources, will however guide middle-graders and their teachers to further information on Zitkala-Sa's life and times.