SOURCE: Helen Hunt Jackson, Boise State University, 1987, pp. 24–39.

In the following excerpt, Whitaker traces the beginnings of the author's interest in the Native American political cause, providing an overview of Jackson's nonfiction writing on the subject, including A Century of Dishonor.

By 1879 Jackson was restless and uncertain about the direction her writing should take. Late in the year she decided to return to the East to see if a change of environment would revitalize her. Her future was decided by a chance encounter. While visiting in Boston, she went to a reception sponsored by a group of prominent citizens who were alive with indignation over the U.S. government's treatment of the Indians. Their sentiment had been aroused by Thomas H. Tibbles, a reporter for the Omaha Daily Herald and founder of the Omaha Indian Commission. He had persuaded Ponca Chief Standing Bear and two Omaha Indians, the...