Zitkala-Sa Quotes: Google Doodle Honors Yankton Sioux Writer On Her 145th Birthday

Google Doodle is honoring writer and musician Zitkala-Sa on her 145th birthday. Also known by the name Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, Zitkala-Sa belonged to the Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota and was also a teacher and suffragist.

Zitkala-Sa worked relentlessly to help protect and celebrate her indigenous heritage through arts and activism. Her anthology of oral Dakota stories "Old Indian Legends" was published in 1901 and was among the first books to bring traditional stories about Indigenous Americans to a larger audience.

On her birthday, here are five inspirational quotes by the writer, courtesy Good Reads -

• "Before this peculiar experience I have no distinct memory of having recognized any vital bond between myself and my own shadow. I never gave it an afterthought."
• "I was not wholly conscious of myself, but was more keenly alive to the fire within. It was as if I were the activity, and my hands and feet were only experiments for my spirit to work upon."
• "For untold ages the Indian race had not used family names. A new-born child was given a brand-new name. Blue-Star Woman was proud to write her name for which she would not be required to substitute another's upon her marriage, as is the custom of civilized peoples."
• "Few there are who have paused to question whether real life or long-lasting death lies beneath this semblance of civilization."
• "The old legends of America belong quite as much to the blue-eyed little patriot as to the black-haired aborigine. And when they are grown tall like the wise grown-ups may they not lack interest in a further study of Indian folklore, a study which so strongly suggests our near kinship with the rest of humanity and points a steady finger toward the great brotherhood of mankind, and by which one is so forcibly impressed with the possible earnestness of life as seen through the teepee door! If it be true that much lies ‘in the eye of the beholder,’ then in the American aborigine as in any other race, sincerity of belief, though it were based upon mere optical illusion, demands a little respect."