Zitkala-Sa

Notes: juicy apple, butterscotch and caramelized vanilla, rosewood, cedar, sweet clover. Part of the Miss Behave Collection.

Zitkala-Sa, born into the Yankton Dakota Sioux tribe in 1876, translated her traumatic experiences at a Quaker missionary school into a lifetime of fighting against the erasure of indigenous heritage. She fearlessly used her prodigious skills as a writer and musician to depict a new view of Dakota culture through her essays, even when it placed her livelihood at risk during a time when Native Americans were vilified as savage and ignorant. Her opera The Sun Dance, based on her essays, was the first opera written by a Native American. The Sun Dance portrayed a sacred ritual which had been outlawed as part of the attempt to suppress indigenous religions.

As much an activist as a writer or musician, Zitkala-Sa lobbied for American Citizenship for Native Americans,, and in 1924 the federal Indian Citizenship Act passed, granting them US citizenship but not the right to vote, which varied from state to state. The fight for suffrage continued state by state until 1962, when Utah was the final state to grant voting rights to indigenous people. Although she didn’t live to see the conclusion of the fight she helped start, her work continued to influence policy and promote Native culture long after her passing.

Zitkala-Sa described her journey to the missionary school as a journey to “Red Apple Country” which is what she thought she would find there. We’ve centered her eponymous fragrance on juicy red apple, and on the butterscotch vanilla smell of Ponderosa pine, and on sweet prairie clover.