Hopkins, Sarah Winnemucca

Hopkins, Sarah Winnemucca

 or Sarah Hopkins Winnemucca or Thocmectony

(born c. 1844, Humboldt Sink, Mex.—died Oct. 16, 1891, Monida, Mont., U.S.) U.S. educator, lecturer, tribal leader, and writer. Born to a Northern Paiute family, she lived as a child with a white family and attended a convent school, and later she served as an army interpreter and scout. Her lecture tours in the East in the 1880s publicized the plight of her tribe and protested government policies. Her writings, of which Life Among the Piutes (1883) is the best known, are valuable for their description of Indian life and their insights into the impact of white settlement, and they are among the few contemporary Native American works.