Americanize the First American

Abstract

A few months after the United States declared war on Germany in the summer of 1917, Gertrude Simmons Bonnin moved to Washington, D.C as the Society of American Indians had elected her secretary. Bonnin managed to juggle war work with advocacy for other causes, which quickly brought her into the orbit of politically active white women in the District. She displayed a masterful political sense, gaining white allies by deploying her identity as a Native woman. She would use a similar strategy in her suffrage work. She also turned her energy to a ban on peyote use, which put her in conflict with other Native people.