About the Book

Sherman and Grace Coolidge were a remarkable couple in many respects. Sherman Coolidge (Runs On Top), born in the early 1860s into the Northern band of Arapahos, experienced the extreme violence of the Indian Wars, including the death of his father, as a young boy. Grace Wetherbee Coolidge was born into wealth and privilege in 1873, only to reject her life as a New York heiress and become a missionary on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. It was there that Sherman and Grace met and later married in 1902.

After eight years together at Wind River, both went on to achieve prominence: Sherman as the president of the Native-run reform group the Society of American Indians (1911-1923), Grace as the author of Teepee Neighbors, a book describing her time on the reservation that drew praise from critics such as H. L. Mencken. Sherman was an Episcopal priest and a mesmerizing speaker who had the unique ability to blend his assimilated Western perspective with Arapaho values to educate the American public about the significant challenges facing Native peoples, including endemic poverty, racism, and inequality. Offering unprecedented entree into the most significant writings and documents of a leading Native American advocate and his wife, this volume is an intimate portrait of their life and contributes to our understanding of American Indian activism at a key moment of Indigenous resurgence against the settler state.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Editorial Policy Sherman and Grace Coolidge: A Biographical Sketch Notes on the Writings of Sherman Coolidge Notes on the Writings of Grace Coolidge Part 1. Sherman Coolidge: Stories, Articles, Speeches, and Statements Scenes from an Arapaho Boyhood Crow and Eagle The Colt A Little Gambler A Horse Race The Death of Big Heart (Brave Heart) Dispatches from a Wind River Missionary 1885 Report to the Spirit of Missions 1886 Report to the Spirit of Missions 1896 Report to the Spirit of Missions 1897 Report to the Spirit of Missions 1898 Report to the Spirit of Missions 1899 Report to the Spirit of Missions Early Articles and Statements Education of Indians Speech at the Seventh Annual Meeting of the Lake Mohonk Conference of the Friends of the Indian The Indian of To-Day Indians in Wyoming Sherman and the Society The Indian American: His Duty to His Race and to His Country, the United States of America American Indians for the Honor of Their Race The American Indian of Today The Function of the Society of American Indians Conference Evening at Haskell Indian School American Indian Day Statement before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Opening Address of the President at the Sixth Annual Conference of the Society of American Indians Open Debate on the Loyalty of Indian Employees in the Indian Service Escaped Massacre to Be Taken by White Folk and Educated for Ministry—Story of an Indian Boy Statements for Sunset A Sermon and a Protest Ye Cannot Serve God and Mammon Statements at the Colorado Springs Open Forum on the American Indian Part 2. Grace Coolidge: Writings, Letters, and Poems Articles for the Spirit of Missions An Arapahoe Christmas Tree A Christmas Tree that Bore Souls Writings for the American Indian Magazine Wanted: To Save the Babies, or Capricornus and a Coroner The Carpenter Who Had No One to Set Him Straight The White Plague Justice on a Reservation: A Story of an Actual Happening Letters Dearest Reddy, 1896–1901 Love, Marriage, and Death at Wind River, 1902–5 Later Missives, 1911–32 Poems The Offering of the Goddess On Finishing a Book Notes Bibliography Index