Zitkala-Sa’s Nonviolent Rhetoric of Native American Resistance to Cultural Violence of Religion Replacement

• In Event: Convergent Roads: Discourses of Peace and Conflict among American Indian, Euro-American and Russian Cultures

Abstract

To date there is substantial research into the nonviolent rhetoric of contemporary international human rights activists such as Nobel Peace prize winners, the Dalai Lama of Tibet or Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar/Burma (Gorsevski 2004). Aside from the nonviolent rhetoric of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., American orators and writers of the nonviolent tradition are often overlooked. Moreover, despite the rich tradition of Native American and First Nation activism with attendant rhetoric of both incendiary and nonviolent genres, there is comparatively little research on the nonviolent rhetoric of Native Americans in general and Native American women in particular.

This essay seeks to begin to remedy the omission of Native American women from the canon by exploring the rhetoric of Zitkala-Sa (a.k.a. Gertrude Bonnin), who “was the first American Indian woman to write her story” in her own words (Hoeffel, 1999). Zitkala-Sa was a fearless social reformer who took unpopular stances on Native American issues and worked tirelessly on behalf of American Indian causes, especially that of preserving, rather than destroying cultural integrity. Hoeffel also notes that “Bonnin was equally bold in her political … didactic writing, entitling an essay ‘Why I Am a Pagan’ during a time (1902) when it was popular for American Indians to humbly describe their conversions to Christianity.” In addition, Hoeffel avers, “her writing and activism were informed by social criticism and rebellion, conflicts between tradition and acculturation… politics, between American Indian spirituality and Christian religion, and other dilemmas.” This analysis considers the nonviolent tropes in Zitkala-Sa’s essay, “Why I Am a Pagan.” Hoeffel argues that Zitkala-Sa “tapped the potential of merging literary art and protest and thereby paved the way for contemporary activist and experimental writers to do the same.” This essay seeks to retrieve and explore the unique persuasive strategies in the nonviolent rhetoric of this important activist to help expand exemplars of rhetorical excellence from the routine cast of white men to include women of color, especially from Native Americans who were here first.

Author

• Ellen Gorsevski, Bowling Green State Univ