The Lost Bird Project ¦ About Lost Bird
A Final Snapshot


In 1915, San Francisco held the Panama-Pacific Exposition. Clara Colby was invited to speak, one of the last original Suffragettes. By now, Clara was destitute. She had petitioned Congress on a yearly basis in her early days; now she worked street corners, holding a tin cup for money, berated by street urchins in the pouring rain who taunted, "Votes for Men."

Clara and Zintka shared a final, touching moment at the Exposition in San Francisco. It would be a final snapshot that the two shared, putting into bold relief the lives of these two women.

Clara stood in the Exhibition Hall, and described the plight of women in America and around the world. Her experience on the subject was rich, and poetry flowed from this veteran Suffragette. She was nearly 70 years old.

Clara talked about the great women of the Americas who offered their strength to the young country. As Clara evoked the name of Sacagawea, Zintka could be seen on a separate dais. She wore a tailored outfit of buckskin, merging Native dress with a more fitted, Western silhouette - cinched at the waist, ample in the chest. Side by side the two stood, a loving mother and the Lost Bird of Wounded Knee. Never was a moment crafted that so essentially described the complex and lonely relationship that the two shared.

It was to be their last time together.


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