Description
On December 28, 1890, the United States Army massacred around three hundred members of the Lakota tribe—men, women, and children—during an attempt to take control of the camp near Wounded Knee Creek. It remains one of the most infamous episodes of US history. One survivor of the massacre was a baby girl who had been sheltered from the harsh weather and fighting by her mother’s body. The girl was taken as a trophy of war by US General Leonard Wright Colby, but not before one of the Lakota women who found her named her Zintkala Nuni—“Lost Bird.”
In Zintka!, Brad Colerick and Scott Feldmann seek to raise awareness of Zintka’s complex life and story, and in so doing, to elucidate the pernicious nature of colonization and forced assimilation for both the individual and wider society. The first half of the book is centered on a poem written by Colerick, titled “Little Bird – Lost Bird of Wounded Knee,” which briefly sets out Zintka’s story. The entire poem is presented, and then it is broken down on almost a line-by-line basis, with each line illustrated by mixed media/collage art reflecting its subject and meaning.
The art in this part is really eye-catching, mixing photographs of historical documents, color illustrations, and other images, with there being plenty of detail to pick out. Coupled with the poem, it provides of good overview of what happened to Zintka, although someone who already had at least a basic understanding of the facts would probably get more out of it. Fortunately, the second part of Zintka! begins with an essay, “Zintka’s Story,” by Feldmann, which summarizes things for those who do not already know.
Zintka’s life with truly characterized by trauma and adversity, and at one time she was famous for it. After being taken from Wounded Knee by General Colby—who forged his wife’s consent to the adoption—she grew up in a series of boarding schools after her adopted parents divorced. There, she was forced to assimilate while also being told that she could never belong. What’s more, she learned nothing about her Lakota background, which meant she also failed to fit in when she ran away to a reservation at age sixteen.
A detailed timeline sets out the events of Zintka’s short life, which was marked by rejection and exploitation, including her continuous attempts to learn more about her Lakota roots—she suspected that Chief Sitting Bull was her father, although this was never proven. A second essay by Feldmann explains the significance of the name Zintkala Nuni and how Zintka’s story came to be rediscovered some sixty years after her death, eventually leading to her being reburied with her people at Wounded Knee.
Although only a brief book, Zintka! is a very moving and emotional read. Zintka’s story is an extraordinary one, and while she was finally reunited with her birth mother in death, the tragedy of never belonging anywhere marked her life. Still, despite all the adversity she endured, she was a brave, determined, and unconventional person, taking risks in her life and career that would have been very bold at the time. In revealing the disastrous consequences that colonization and persecution had on just one person, Zintka! shows how deleterious it was for a people.