Century of Dishonor, A

A Century of Dishonor: A Sketch of the United States Government's Dealings With Some of the Indian Tribes by Helen Hunt Jackson is a work of nonfiction. Published in 1881, the book is brutally critical of federal policy toward Native Americans and of white–Native American relations generally.

The book is neither history nor political theory but rather an impassioned challenge to the United States to act morally and honorably in its dealings with Native Americans. Relying on extensive research, Jackson recounts stories of displacements, massacres, and broken treaties. A Century of Dishonor did not sell in record numbers, and it did not result in immediate improvement in Native American affairs. But it did make the public aware of cruelties and corruption, and it captured the attention of other reformers.

Before writing A Century of Dishonor, Jackson was already a prolific writer who had published children's stories, novels, essays, and poems. Ralph Waldo Emerson considered her superior to most American writers. In 1879, during a visit to Boston, Jackson attended a lecture by Chief Standing Bear, who traveled the country telling his story of the forced removal of the Ponca from their tribal land. Jackson was so emotionally stirred by the speech that she devoted herself to arousing public opinion on behalf of the unjust treatment of Native Americans. She circulated petitions, raised money for lawsuits, and wrote letters to newspapers and government officials, including Carl Schurz, secretary of the interior.

She also spent months researching mistreatment of Native Americans and specific instances of broken treaties. A Century of Dishonor was the product of that research. It included histories of seven tribes and a chapter on massacres of Native Americans by whites. She pointed out the long history of broken treaties and demanded that the U.S. government end “murder, outrage, robbery, and wrongs” against the Indians. She was pleased when the Reverend Henry Benjamin Whipple, the Episcopal bishop of Minnesota and a longtime supporter of Indian rights, agreed to write the preface. All her earlier work had been published under pseudonyms, a common practice for women writers in the 19th century. In a bold move, she published A Century of Dishonor under her own name. She paid for copies of the book to be sent to each member of Congress. The special copies were bound in blood-red cloth. Embossed on the cover were words Benjamin Franklin penned in a letter to a member of Parliament on July 5, 1775: “Look upon your hands! They are stained with the blood of your relations.”

The book did not bring the response Jackson hoped. There were some positive reviews, and some humanitarians were outraged by the abuses Jackson had so carefully delineated, but for the most part, Congress and the American public were indifferent. But Jackson did not forsake the cause. In the fall of 1881, she visited California and became aware of the plight of the various tribes living around the former Spanish mission towns. Massive dispossessions by Americans had left only around 4,000 mission [Page 461]Indians in southern California, where an estimated 15,000 had lived 30 years earlier. Once more Jackson was stirred to action. This time her work was noticed by Hiram Price, commissioner of Indian affairs, who recommended that Jackson be appointed an agent of the Department of Interior. She was assigned to investigate and make recommendations concerning the mission Indians. Her 56-page Report on the Conditions and Needs of the Mission Indians of California, completed in 1883, listed 11 recommendations, ranging from the purchase of new lands for reservations to the establishment of more Indian schools. Legislation that adopted most of these recommendations was introduced; it passed the Senate but died in the House of Representatives.

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