Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (1876-1938)

A member of the Yanton Sioux, Gertrude Simmons Bonnin was one of a number of white-educated Native Americans who fought for the fair treatment of her people by the federal government. She was born in 1876 in South Dakota and was educated both on the Sioux reservation and at schools in Indiana and Virginia. An author, reformer, orator, and musician, she was also a teacher at the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania and the composer of an Indian opera based upon the Plains Indians' Sun Dance. Her first book, Old Indian Legends, was published in 1901. Gertrude Simmons Bonnin died in 1938

Source: Famous Native American Leaders - Dover Press