Skip to main content
Intellect

Lee Library exhibit honors Native American activist during April

Brigham Young University’s Harold B. Lee Library will display an exhibit featuring materials related to Native American rights activist Zitkala-Sa throughout the month of April in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections on the first floor of the library.

Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, known by her pen name Zitkala-Sa, was a Native American writer, teacher, musician and political activist. She co-composed “The Sun Dance Opera” with composer and former BYU professor William F. Hanson. Their opera premiered in Vernal, Utah, and was performed later on Broadway by the New York Light Opera Guild.

Special Collections acquired the Zitkala-Sa materials as part of the personal collections of former BYU president Ernest L. Wilkinson, who was Zitkala-Sa’s friend and attorney.

The exhibit was created by the library’s family history intern Suzanne Earnshaw, in collaboration with John Murphey, Special Collections’ 20th century curator; Shawn McMurdie, library designer; Amanda Cockriel, library design intern; and Brian Cannon and Jesse Embry of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies.

For more information, contact Roger Layton at (801) 422-6519 or roger_layton@byu.edu, or Suzanne Earnshaw at se2724@comcast.net.

Writer: Angela Fischer

Related Articles

data-content-type="article"

ForGOT Milk? BYU students address drop in dairy milk drinking with 'legen-dairy' packaging designs

March 15, 2023
A group of 25 BYU food science, industrial design and graphic design students are helping address the decline in dairy milk consumption by creating more appealing labels and packaging for cow milk.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

Pornography use at any level harms romantic relationships, says new BYU study

March 09, 2023
Avoiding pornography is vital to developing a healthy and long-term romantic relationship, says a new study from BYU.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

Ancient artifacts uncovered by BYU archaeologists reveal the 'roots of Casas Grandes'

March 07, 2023
At an excavation site in northern Mexico, BYU archaeology students and professors recently discovered artifacts that have been buried for 1,000 years, including pottery sherds, hammer stones, maize kernels and — intriguing at a location 250 miles inland — a shell bead from the Pacific Ocean.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText=