The Chemawa School still exists, just north of Salem, Oregon. Zintka was sent to study there, where the majority of students were Northwest Indians, from bands such as the Yakima and Wallowa. They weren't Lakota, but Zintka found a bond she had missed from childhood. She began using Indian slang and dressed in flashier clothes. She was openly defiant of the school's authorities. 16 years of being fashioned as a "token of the battlefield" and "the world's youngest Suffragette" were taking their toll. Zintka needed to find her role for herself.

Zintka ran away from Chemawa, but was returned. Shortly afterward, Zintka and some girlfriends were caught with two boys they had snuck into the women's rooms. Zintka escaped through a window. The 16 year old now started out, free and on her own, to find the woman she had never known.

Zintka escaped to South Dakota, her homeland. Before she could join up with her Nation, she met Peter "Indian Pete" Culbertson, a showman. She joined Indian Pete's Wild West Show, and was soon earning a meager living. She rode horses, doing "top work," vaults and "drags." Like the others in the business of show, Zintka wore flamboyant clothes wherever she went, called "loudrags."

It may seem strange to imagine that Zintka transformed so quickly in the world of entertainment and show business. Several other such jobs would follow. But her whole life, from her discovery to the receptions and expositions, was a display of some sort - being put on pedestals, hailed with titles, put in forced postures for the public. Now, Zintka began to take control of this property and make it her own.

Zintka earned enough money to go to the Standing Rock Agency in South Dakota, the lands of her tiyospaye (family/community). She was seeking Sitting Bull's relatives, in hopes that they might recognize her. But mumps and tuberculosis were rampant, and access was restricted. She also did not have proper permission to visit, and was denied.

We now see one of Zintkala Nuni's most heartbreaking scenes. Alone in the world, Zintka found herself without money, unable to reconnect with her Native peoples. She had been taught the ways of a White woman - insistent, out-spoken and direct. These were foreign to her Lakota relatives, and she found no home waiting for her in South Dakota.

The rains came to the Black Hill country during this time out-of-balance. One stormy night, a lone figure stood in the muddy roads of the South Dakota Indian country. She looked around, and shouted to the heavens, to anyone that would hear:

And in this torrent, Zintka herself wasn't even aware that she pronounced her own name incorrectly.