# Sally Roesch Wagner

Sally Roesch Wagner (born July 11, 1942) is an American author, activist, lecturer and historian. Dr. Wagner is known for her work in multiple activist movements, publications and programs, as well as her lectures on history and activism.

## Early life and education

Wagner was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota, in 1942, to her father, a banker and German Russian immigrant, and her mother. Wagner has described her mother as a "beautiful, creative woman who was locked into the impossibility of actualizing herself in the 1950's." In 1960, Wagner became pregnant out of high school and had no access to birth control or abortion, a fact that impacted her later activism with the Women's liberation movement. She got married immediately after that at the age of 18, and gave birth to her first child later that year. She and her husband divorced in 1965, and she raised two children on welfare while earning her degree.
Dr. Wagner earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology and a masters degree from California State University, Sacramento before going on to be one of the first people in the United States to earn a doctorate degree History of Consciousness with a concentration in Women's Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1975.

## Career and activism

The beginning of Wagner's activism began after she saw footage of a North Vietnamese mother with her napalmed baby. From there, she joined Another Mother For Peace, an anti-war not-for-profit organization and became a strong member of the anti-war movement, becoming involved with university strikes in protest of the Vietnam War and Kent State shootings. She also advocated strongly for women's liberation and held a strong position in the movement.
After that, she went back to teach at her alma mater, California State University, Sacramento. There, she helped found the school's Women Studies Program and taught from the 1970s to 1981 before resigning and being hired at Mankato State University in Minnesota and working there from 1981 to 1985.
She was given a grant to study suffragette Matilda Joslyn Gage from the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. From there, she became extremely interested in Gage and eventually purchased the home Gage lived in until 1898, located in Fayetteville, New York. In 2002, she turned it into the Matilda Joslyn Gage Center, a place for dialogue and exchange.
Doctor Wagner began work as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Syracuse University in 1997, teaching classes on women's suffrage and other activist history. In 2019, she published The Women's Suffrage Movement, an anthology of works about the history of women's suffrage. In this book, she discusses the political power that Indigenous women hold, the beginning of the suffrage movement, the downfalls of the Comstock Act of 1873, and much more.
In 2020, the documentary Without a Whisper: Konnón:kwe premiered, featuring Sally Roesch Wagner and Mohawk Clan Mother Louise Herne. The documentary discusses how Indigenous women influenced the early suffragists.

### Campaigns against The Wounded Knee Massacre

Dr. Wagner became interested in Wounded Knee, specifically the Wounded Knee Massacre, while she was researching Daughters of Dakota, a book series about pioneer women. She has researched and brought to light the various ways that the massacre was covered up, saying that she believes that there was a military cover-up of what happened. She has called for a revocation of the medals awarded to the American soldiers who attacked at Wounded Knee for decades.

### L. Frank Baum racism

Wagner also was one of the pioneers in bringing to light the racist and genocidal messages that L. Frank Baum, the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, who wrote in support of the genocide of the Native Americans in Wounded Knee, calling for a "total extermination." Many believe that the publication of his beliefs could have led to the Wounded Knee massacre Baum's estate apologized for his racism in 2006.

## Publications

| Publication | Appeared In | Publisher | Year Published |
| "The Influence of the Haudenosaunee" | A Vote for Women: Celebrating the Women's Suffrage Movement and the 19th Amendment. | London: SJH Group | 2021 |
| Law and Altar: The Timely and Timeless Struggle of Matilda Joslyn Gage | Conscience: The Newsjournal of Catholic Opinion, Vol.XLII | Conscience: The Newsjournal of Catholic Opinion | 2021 |
| Honoring the Circle: Ongoing Learning of the West from American Indians on Politics and Society | | Vol. II. Waterside Productions | 2020 |
| We Want Equal Rights: How Suffragists Were Influence by Native American Women | | 7th Generation | 2020 |
| "Family Legacy," book review of Princess of the Hither Isles: A Black Suffragist's Story from the Jim Crow South | | Ms. Magazine | 2019 |
| The Influence of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) | Women Win the Vote, National Women's History Alliance | National Women's History Alliance | 2019 |
| Truth, Reconciliation and Reshaping Women's History | | Ms. Online | 2019 |
| The Women's Suffrage Movement | | Penguin Classics | 2019 |
| Introduction | Roses and Radicals | Viking Books For Young Readers | 2017 |
| "'Suffragette' is the movie feminists have been dreaming of" | USA Today, November 2015 | USA Today | 2015 |
| "I'll Have What She's Having" | Bust Magazine, Volume 95 | Bust Magazine | 2015 |
| The Elizabeth Cady Stanton Collection | | Syracuse Cultural Workers | 2015 |
| "Safe Containers for Dangerous Memories" | The Public Historian, Volume 37 | The Public Historian | 2015 |
| Productive Discomfort: Dialogue, Reproductive Choice and Social Justice Education at the Matilda Joslyn Gage Center | Journal of Museum Education, Volume 38, Number 2, Summer 2013. | Journal of Museum Education | 2013 |
| The moment has come for women's equality in New York: Commentary. | The [Syracuse] Post Standard online (Syracuse.com), 18 June 2013. | The Syracuse Post Standard, online | 2013 |
| Film is Antithesis of Author Baum's Egalitarian, Matriarchal Vision | The [Syracuse] Post Standard, 17 March 2013 | The [Syracuse] Post Standard | 2013 |
| Matilda Joslyn Gage: Far Ahead of Her Time | Syracuse Woman Magazine, March 2013 | Syracuse Woman Magazine | 2013 |
| The Susan B. Anthony Window in the Home of Matilda Joslyn Gage | New York History Review. Volume 6, Issue 1, December 2012 | New York History Review | 2012 |
| Come Write On Our Walls! | Museums of Ideas: Commitment and Conflict | Museums Etc, Ltd. | 2011 |
| Feminism, Native American Influences, | Encyclopedia of American Indian History, Vol. II. | ABC: CLIO | 2008 |
| Matilda Joslyn Gage | The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief | Prometheus Books | 2007 |
| Haudenosaunee Women Inspire | Peace Newsletter | Syracuse NY Peace Council | 2006 |
| As Cady Did. Book Review. | Ms. Magazine, Fall 2005 | Ms. Magazine | 2005 |
| The Indigenous Roots of United States Feminism | Feminist Politics, Activism and Vision: Local and Global Challenge. | London and New York: Zed Books Ltd. | 2004 |
| The Wonderful Mother of Oz | Baum Bugle, Winter 2003 | Baum Bugle | 2003 |
| American Women | YES! A Journal of Positive Futures, Spring 2002. | YES! | 2002 |
| "Forgotten Champion of Liberty: Matilda Joslyn Gage (19th Century Suffrage Leader)" | Free Inquiry Fall 2002 | Free Inquiry | 2002 |
| Woman, Church and State. Introduction to reprint of Matilda Joslyn Gage's 1893 classic. | | Prometheus Books | 2001 |
| Sisters in Spirit: The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Influence on Woman's Rights | | Native Voices Press | 2001 |
| "New Women's History Videos." | National Women's Studies Association Journal | Indiana University Press | 2000 |
| "The Iroquois Influence on Women's Rights" | Awakened Woman E-Magazine, Winter Solstice 1999 | Awakened Woman Magazine | 1999 |
| Faculty Guide to accompany film "Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony," | | Public Broadcasting System | 1999 |
| Matilda Joslyn Gage: She Who Holds the Sky | | Sky Carrier Press | 1998 |
| A Time of Protest: Suffragists Challenge the Republic | | Sky Carrier Press | 1997 |
| Daughters of Dakota Series | | Sky Carrier Press | 1989-1993 |
| Stories from the Black Hills | Volume Six | | 1993 |
| The Long Stories. | Volume Five | | 1992 |
| Stories of Privation: German, German-Russian and Scandinavian Immigrants in South Dakota | Volume 4 | | 1991 |
| Stories of Friendship Between Settlers and the Dakota Indians | Volume 3 | | 1990 |
| Stories from the Attic | Volume 2 | | 1990 |