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ZITKÁLA-ŠÁ BY GERTRUDE KÄSEBIER

ZITKÁLA-ŠÁ (USA 1876–1938) (Lakota: RED BIRD), also known by the missionary-given and later married name GERTRUDE SIMMONS BONNIN, was a Sioux writer, editor, musician, teacher, and one of the most influential Native American activists of the twentieth Century.

In 1913, working with American musician William F. Hanson, Zitkala-Ša wrote the libretto and songs for The Sun Dance Opera, the first American Indian opera. She also, wrote several works chronicling her youthful struggles with identity and pulls between the majority culture and her Native American heritage. Between 1918 and 1919 she edited the society’s American Indian Magazine. In 1926, she founded the National Council of American Indians and, as the organization’s president, she advocated citizenship rights, better educational opportunities, improved health care, and cultural recognition and preservation. Her investigation of land swindles perpetrated against Native Americans resulted in her appointment as an adviser to the U.S. government’s Meriam Commission of 1928, the findings of which eventually led to several important reforms.

 

  

GERTRUDE KÄSEBIER (1852 –1934) was one of the most influential American photographers of the early 20th century. She was a leading member of the pioneering photographic movement known as Pictorialism, which emphasized a subjective, painterly approach to photography rather than a documentary one. 
Käsebier achieved immediate success: attracting wealthy clients, exhibiting her work, and receiving enthusiastic reviews. In addition to portraits, Käsebier produced photographic landscapes and figure studies.

   In 1898, Käsebier watched Buffalo Bill’s Wild West troupe parade past her Fifth Avenue studio in New York City, New York. Her memories of affection and respect for the Lakota people inspired her to send a letter to William “Buffalo Bill” Cody requesting permission to photograph Sioux traveling with the show in her studio. Cody quickly approved Käsebier’s request. Käsebier’s project was purely artistic and her images were not made for commercial purposes and never used in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West program booklets or promotional posters. Käsebier took classic photographs of the Sioux while they were relaxed. The photographs are preserved at the National Museum of American History's Photographic History Collection at the Smithsonian Institution.

In 1902, Käsebier joined noted American photographer Alfred Stieglitz and others to found the Photo-Secession, an organization that promoted Pictorialism. Käsebier was an active member of Stieglitz’s circle, which included Edward Steichen and Clarence White. Her work was featured in the inaugural issue of Steiglitz’s periodical Camera Work, and she had an important exhibition at 291, Stieglitz’s radical New York gallery.
  With the help of one of her daughters, Käsebier (whose husband had died in 1910) continued to run her portrait studio until 1927. She had a major retrospective exhibition of her work at the Brooklyn Museum two years later. A major collection of her work is held by the University of Delaware.