"I felt the cold blades of the scissors against my neck, and heard them gnaw off one of my thick braids. Then I lost my spirit. Since the day I was taken from my mother I had suffered extreme indignities. People had stared at me. I had been tossed about in the air like a wooden puppet. And now my long hair was shingled like a coward's! In my anguish I moaned for my mother, but no one came to comfort me. Not a soul reasoned quietly with me, as my own mother used to do; for now I was only one of many little animals driven by a herder. (II: THE CUTTING OF MY LONG HAIR)"
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Political activistsAutobiographers from the United StatesFeminists from the United StatesWomen activists from the United StatesNative American activists
Original Language: English
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https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Zitkala-%C5%A0a
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Zitkala-Ša
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