Divinely Guided: The California Work of the Women''s National Indian Association

Founded in Philadelphia in 1879, the WNIA devoted seventy years to working among Native women. Bucking societys narrow sense of womens appropriate sphere, WNIA members across the U.S. built homes, missionary cottages, schools, and chapels, and sponsored teachers and physiciansall with a strong dose of Christianity. Though goals of forced assimilation were as unrealistic as they were unsuccessful, WNIAs contributions to the welfare of Native women were hardly insignificant, especially in California. In the north, they worked at the Round Valley and Hoopa Reservations and realized their most unusual undertakingthe funding of the Greenville Indian Industrial School. In the south they worked with the Native mission populations, where cultural similarities and greater proximity fostered unprecedented cooperation among WNIA workers. Amelia Stone Quinton, longtime WNIA president and editor of The Indians Friend, provides a consistent narrative thread, as does Helen Hunt Jackson in the chapters on Southern California. Even after Jacksons death, her spiritual presence and the impact of her novel Ramona guided WNIA membership. Mathess recovery of WNIA history, supported by a wealth of documentation, reveals much about an eras sense of sphere, service, and sisterhood.