The “Indian Problem”—that was the word used by the government in the 19th and 20th centuries. What to do with the hundreds of Native nations and tribes in and around the United States? When the goal wasn’t destruction it was assimilation.

 

But Native people had their own plans—and one Cherokee woman, Ruth Muskrat Bronson, helped lead that charge. A poet, educator, and activist, Ruth knew that Native Americans could and should fight for their civil rights AND retain their tribal identities. Speaking in front of the President to gain Native citizenship, penning ground-breaking poems and books, founding and leading the National Congress of American Indians … she left a legacy that blazes bright today.

 

Jen Loren—niece of Ruth and citizen of the Cherokee Nation—brings that legacy and the wider story of Native American civil rights in the 20th century to richly imagined life.