Amelia Stone Quinton and the Women's National Indian Association Volume 2: A Legacy of Indian Reform (Women and the American West)

This first full account of Amelia Stone Quinton (1833-1926) and the organization she cofounded, the Women’s National Indian Association (WNIA), offers a nuanced insight into the intersection of gender, race, religion, and politics in our shared history.Author Valerie Sherer Mathes shows how Quinton, like Helen Hunt Jackson, was a true force for reform and progress who was nonetheless constrained by the assimilationist convictions of her time. The WNIA, which Quinton cofounded with Mary Lucinda Bonney in 1879, was organized expressly to press for a “more just, protective, and fostering Indian policy,” but also to promote the assimilation of the Indian through Christianization and “civilization.” Charismatic and indefatigable, Quinton garnered support for the WNIA’s work by creating strong working relationships with leaders of the main reform groups, successive commissioners of Indian affairs, secretaries of the interior, and prominent congressmen.The WNIA’s powerful network of friends f