Marie Mason Potts: The Lettered Life of a California Indian Activist

Join us in Central Library’s West Meeting Room as Sacramento State University professor and anthropologist Terri A. Castaneda discusses her recent book Marie Mason Potts: The Lettered Life of a California Indian Activist (University of Oklahoma Press). Marie Potts (1895-1978) was a Mountain Maidu woman who lived in Sacramento’s Oak Park neighborhood from the 1940s until her death. It was here that she rose to state and national prominence as the publicity director for the Federated Indians of California and publisher of the longest-running California Indian owned and edited newspaper, Smoke Signal. Castaneda will demonstrate how Potts’ activist career was shaped by her experiences at two American Indian off-reservation boarding schools, before taking us on a virtual tour of the many Sacramento venues that were critical to her work with the Federated Indians of California, from the State Fair to the Capitol.

Dr. Castaneda will have copies of her book for sale before and after the program. This is a free event and facilitated by the Sacramento Room.

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