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 society’s narrow sense of women’s appropriate sphere, WNIA members across the U.S. built homes, missionary cottages, schools, and chapels, and sponsored teachers and physicians—all with a strong dose of Christianity. Though goals of forced assimilation were as unrealistic as they were unsuccessful, WNIA’s contributions to the welfare of Native women were hardly insignificant, especially in...