Zintka!

The Ghost Dance was a Native American dance of renewal. It was a prayer for both dead relatives and the buffalo to return, a prayer for the restoration of Indian culture and their way of life. The combination of sensational newspaper headlines and memories of Custer’s Last Stand, created fear among the settlers. The US government called for the arrest of Ghost Dance leaders including Sitting Bull who was quickly assassinated at Standing Rock Reservation on December 15, 1890. The massacre at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota would soon follow.

At Wounded Knee, Indian braves were disarmed and killed, women and children slaughtered. A detail was sent to bury the dead, however, an icy blizzard and sub zero temperatures delayed the burial by four days. A weak cry…a baby discovered…the body of her dead mother had kept her warm. Named Zintkala Nuni (Lost Bird) by the Lakota, the infant was taken by Brigadier General Colby as a trophy of war. He had used trickery and barter, then adopted the baby by forging his wife’s signature. Clara Colby, was a devoted mother to Zinta despite being away six months a year working with suffragists in Washington, DC. She was an associate of Susan B. Anthony and Elizbeth Cady Stanton.

Zinta was always on display at numerous receptions, a curiosity to most in attendance. Set apart from other children, she grew to question her identity. She liked to frequently examine her baby moccasins and bracelet. Running away from home, she traveled to Standing Rock Reservation in search of her birth family. Having been snatched from the Lakota people as an infant, she did not understand the language, traditions and spirituality of Native American culture. She was unable to communicate.

Seventy years after being buried in a pauper’s grave on February 14, 1920, Zintkala Nuni was repatriated. Observing proper tradition, she was reburied, honored and mourned at Wounded Knee on July 11,1991.She had come home.

The story of “The Waif of Wounded Knee”, lost between two worlds came to life through the award winning “Best Mixed Media Short” called “Lost Bird” screened at the Sedona International Film Festival in February, 2024. The seven minute animated film presents a multifaceted view of the cost of forced assimilation on the identity and emotional well being of native children adopted away from the reservation.

Zintka! is described as a hybrid format book. An emotionally descriptive song written by singer/songwriter Brad Colerick, the book’s co-author, tells Zinta’s story. Co-author Scott Feldmann creates an animontage, illustrations in an animation style. Ledger Art in primitive drawings follow the Indian tradition of drawing their history. Winter counts show pictographic calendars of historical events. The Ledger Art is superimposed on a background of newspaper articles, historical photographs and handwritten military reports of casualties. Feldman supplies biological information as well as a timeline of Zinta’s life. The sheet music and words for “Little Bird-Lost Bird of Wounded Knee” are included.

Zintka! by Brad Colerick and Scott Feldmann presents “the troubled tale of a Native American girl caught between two worlds, accepted by neither during her lifetime.” A magnificent, highly recommended read.

Thank you Deep Magic Song & Drawing Co. and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.