A Writer Who Made a Difference

Helen Hunt Jackson was a young poet who’d grown up in New England the night in 1879 when she went to Fanueil Hall to hear an Omaha Chief and his young female interpreter tell about the horrors of the “Indian Ring” that was terrorizing and exploiting Native peoples. She was so moved, she spent the rest of her life trying to expose and stop abuse of Native people. Her landmark book, “A Century of Dishonor,” was published in 1881 and is still in print. As one historian said, “No other book had such a impact on the tender consciences of the American people and none accomplished so much on behalf of a sizable minority.”