A Century Of Dishonor Sparknotes

A Century of Dishonor: The Early Crusade For Indian Reform. By Helen Hunt Jackson. (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1881. Pp. 342. Introduction to the Torchbook edition. ISBN 9780486141442, $1.95 paperback.)

Groundbreaking in its time, A Century of Dishonor was an early rendition of historical events from a Native American perspective that served as a plea for reform. Written by writer, poet, and activist Helen Hunt Jackson in 1881, she had hoped to appeal to the morals of her readers regarding the ill treatment of Native Americans. Jackson attended Ipswich seminary school and later the Abbott institute, a boarding school in New York. Jackson published her early works anonymously, but in 1879 her attention turned towards Native Americans and soon became a political activist on their behalf, writing both A Century of Dishonor and Ramona in 1884. In her book, Jackson argues that the treatment of the American Indians by the Europeans in the 1800s was atrocious and dishonorable. A Century of Dishonor opens with an introductory chapter, in which Jackson briefly discusses the interactions between the Native American Indians and several different companies of explorers. Through this, she analyzes the history of the

The tribes Jackson recognizes include the Cherokees, Cheyenne, Delaware tribes, Nez Perce, Ponca, and the Winnebago. Each tribe has a full chapter devoted to themselves and the injustices wrought on by the United States federal government. Following the descriptive chapters comes chapter 9 broken down into several sections detailing the massacres of Native Americans by Europeans. She includes the events of the Conestoga Massacre, Gnadenhutten Massacre, and the massacre of an Apache tribe, as well as the death tolls associated with each. Jackson states that the massacres were not provoked by the Native Americans but were based on irrational fears and