Zitkala-Ša — born Gertrude Simmons on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in 1876 — spent decades fighting federal policies designed to eradicate Native American culture, including the boarding school system she had herself survived as a child. She co-wrote the opera "Sun Dance" in 1913, the first known opera by a Native American composer, and later founded the National Council of American Indians in 1926, serving as its president until her death in 1938.
This quarter was issued under the American Women Quarters Program, authorized by Congress in 2020 to run through 2025.
Zitkala-Ša — born Gertrude Simmons on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in 1876 — spent decades fighting federal policies designed to eradicate Native American culture, including the boarding school system she had herself survived as a child. She co-wrote the opera "Sun Dance" in 1913, the first known opera by a Native American composer, and later founded the National Council of American Indians in 1926, serving as its president until her death in 1938.
This quarter was issued under the American Women Quarters Program, authorized by Congress in 2020 to run through 2025.