Wake Up With Jim, December 30, 2021

Sarah Winnemucca was fearless. She was tenacious. She tirelessly worked to get better treatment for the Paiute and other tribes, and to get tribes to embrace the education needed for them to adapt to the new world and survive.

Her exploits were legendary. As an example, in 1878, she worked as a messenger, scout and interpreter for General O. O. Howard during the Bannock War. She later said, quote, “This was the hardest work I ever did for the government in all my life … having been in the saddle night and day; distance, about two hundred and twenty-three miles. Yes, I went for the government when the officers could not get an Indian man or a white man to go for love or money. I, only an Indian woman, went and saved my people.” Her courageous actions landed her on the front page of The New York Times and made her the subject of dime novels.

This mornings program is brought to you in part by the one and only Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, Missouri. The oldest continuously operated motel on Route 66, the Wagon Wheel Motel is a living time capsule where the line between past and present blur seamlessly.