WOMEN’S NATIONAL INDIAN ASSOCIATION: THE ORGANIZATION, MOTIVATION AND CONTRIBUTION TO THE 1887 DAWES ACT
TERESA RICE

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SACRAMENTO
HISTORY 197A
PROFESSOR CHARLES ROBERTS, PH.D.
FALL SEMESTER 2002

In April of 1879, Mary Lucinda Bonney upon seeing reports in the newspapers that Senator Vest of Missouri was urging the United States Congress to open Indian lands for white settlement was motivated to “awaken the conscience of Congress and the people” to the injustice done to the Indians.¹ After an unsuccessful attempt to present her first petition to her missionary society due to an agenda overcrowded with other topics, Bonney discussed the matter privately with her friend, Amelia Stone Quinton, presenting her with all the facts she had collected. Quinton responded with sympathy and support saying, "Something must be done."² Quinton and Bonney resolved to work together to present this "moral wrong" to the public.³ Quinton had experience in Christian work and knew how to bring the matter to the attention of the public, so Bonney "was to secure the money and [Quinton] was to plan and work."⁴ The work began by Bonney and Quinton solidified into the creation of the Women’s National Indian Association (WNIA), an organization that was devoted to creating public awareness of the wrongs done to the Indians, performing missionary work, and effectively petitioning the United States Congress for protective legislation for the Indians that contributed substantially to the Dawes Act of 1887.⁵

¹ Mary L. Bonney as quoted in Frances E. Willard and Mary A. Livermore, eds, A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-Seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life. (1893, Reprint, Detroit: Gale Research Company: 1967), 595.

² Amelia Stone Quinton as quoted in Willard, 593.

³ Mary L. Bonney as quoted in Willard, 595.

⁴ Mary L. Bonney as quoted in Willard, 595.

⁵ The Dawes Act also known as the General Allotment Act was sponsored by Senator Henry L. Dawes from Massachusetts and supported by the WNIA. An Act to Provide for the Allotment of Lands in Severalty to Indians on the Various Reservations (General Allotment Act or Dawes Act), Statutes at Large 24, 388-91, (February 8, 1887).

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