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A novelist and a poet, Helen Jackson's remarkable "A Century of Dishonor" stirred public outrage over the U.S. government's mistreatment of Native Americans. Her book centered on seven tribes, among them: Cheyennes, Nez Perce, Sioux, Cherokees and detailed four massacres in particular. At her own expense, she sent a copy of the book to every member of Congress. She was born in Massachusetts in 1830 and became a lifelong friend of poet Emily Dickinson. After her first husband's death (and that of her two young sons in an accident), Jackson moved to Colorado Springs where she married William Sharpless Jackson. It was on a visit to Boston that she learned of the unjust treatment of Indians during a lecture and spent countless years crusading for public awareness. She founded the Boston Indian Citizenship Association. Her crusade lasted until her death in 1885 when even from her deathbed she wrote President Grover Cleveland a letter urging the Indian cause.
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