Helen Hunt Jackson

Helen Hunt Jackson became famous for using her pen to call attention to the plight of Native Americans. Angered by the forced removal of the Ponca tribe from its Nebraska reservation in 1879, Jackson spent the next two years completing A Century of Dishonor, a pointed exposé that chronicled the historic mistreatment of tribal peoples in America. Her later research on the Mission Indians in southern California resulted in a report to Congress outlining their desperate situation as well as the novel Ramona, a best-selling romance that Jackson hoped might “move people’s hearts” toward a more empathetic view of Native Americans.