Ruth Muskrat Bronson

File:Miss Ruth Muskrat, a Cherokee Indian, presents Mr. Coolidge with a copy of The Red Man in the United States, a survey of the present day American Indian LCCN93506280 (cropped).jpg |access-date=8 April 2021}} book The Red Man In The United States{{cite book |last1=Lindquist |first1=Gustavus Elmer Emanuel |title=The Red Man in the United States: An Intimate Study of the Social, Economic, and Religious Life of the American Indian |date=1923 |publisher=George H. Doran Company |location=New York City |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rWVrAAAAMAAJ |language=en |quote=Free, Public Domain}}{{cite journal |last1=Lindquist |first1=Gustavus Elmer Emanuel |journal=Semantic Scholar (research tool) |title=The red man in the United States |s2cid=160452584 |language=en}} (1919) to President Calvin Coolidge; on the right is Rev. Sherman Coolidge, co-founder of the Society of American Indians, December 13, 1923.]]

File:Committee of 100 on Indian Affaires LCCN93506281.jpg, Ruth Muskrat, and Rev. Sherman Coolidge]]

Ruth Margaret Muskrat was born on October 3, 1897{{sfn|Harvey|2004|p=80}} in White Water,{{sfn|Gridley|1947|p=14}} on the Delaware Nation Reservation in Indian Territory to Ida Lenora (née Kelly), an Irish-English transplant from Missouri, and James Ezekial Muskrat, a Cherokee. Her ancestors (through her father) had traveled the Trail of Tears from Georgia to Indian Territory in the late 1830s during Indian Removal.{{sfn|Harvey|2004|p=80}} When she was ten years old, she witnessed the disruption caused to the lives of her nation when the Curtis Act of 1898, an amendment of the Dawes Act, applied allotment of communal lands to the Five Civilized Tribes.{{sfn|Harvey|2004|p=81}}

At the age of fourteen, Muskrat enrolled in preparatory school{{sfn|Harvey|2003|p=55}} at the Oklahoma Institute of Technology in Tonkawa, graduating in 1916. She furthered her education at Henry Kendall College in Tulsa and at Northeastern State Teachers College.{{sfn|Harvey|2004|p=81}} Financial hardship forced her to stop classes, and she taught for two years to earn sufficient funds to continue her schooling.{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=320}}

In 1919, Muskrat enrolled at the University of Oklahoma,{{sfn|Harvey|2003|p=55}} where she studied for three semesters.{{sfn|Harvey|2004|p=81}} During the summer of 1921, she worked for the YWCA and was sent to work on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico. Her report on her organizing efforts earned her a scholarship to attend the University of Kansas,{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=320}} where she studied for three more semesters.{{sfn|Harvey|2004|p=81}}

In 1922, Muskrat went to Peking, China for an international youth conference as part of a YWCA delegation. She was one of the first Native American women to serve as a student delegate abroad.{{sfn|The Winston-Salem Journal|1922|p=5}} The trip, which included stops in "Hawaii, Manchuria, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong." brought Muskrat to the attention of the international press. She was inspired to work for racial equality.{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=320}}

The following year, Muskrat delivered an appeal to the United States President Coolidge for better educational facilities for Native Americans.{{sfn|The Brook Reporter|1923|p=6}} She made the presentation at a gathering of Native American leaders, which was known as the "Committee of One Hundred", to advise President Coolidge on American Indian policy. Muskrat advocated that Indians be involved in solving their own problems.{{sfn|Harvey|2004|p=81}} Moved by her speech,{{cite web |title=Ruth Muskrat's Speech to President Coolidge, December 13, 1923 |url=https://alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/blog/ruth-muskrats-speech-to-president-coolidge-december-13th-1923/ |website=Alumnae Association |publisher=Mount Holyoke College |access-date=8 April 2021 |location=South Hadley, MA |language=en}} President Calvin Coolidge and his wife, Grace, invited Muskrat to lunch with them.{{sfn|The Brook Reporter|1923|p=6}}

In 1923, she enrolled as a junior in Mount Holyoke College, with a full scholarship, and in 1925 graduated with a BA{{sfn|Harvey|2004|p=81}} in English. During her college days, Muskrat was a prolific poet, influenced by the Modernist movement.{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=320}}{{cite web |title=Mount Holyoke Alumna Embraced Both Parts of Her Cultural Identity |url=https://alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/blog/ahead-of-her-time-alumna-ruth-muskrat-bronson-celebrated-diversity/ |website=Alumnae Association |publisher=Mount Holyoke College |access-date=9 April 2021 |language=en}}

After graduation, Muskrat began working at the Haskell Institute as an eighth grade teacher,{{citation |last1=Wollock |first1=Jeffery |title=Protagonism Emergent : Indians and Higher Education |id={{ProQuest| }}|date=Dec 31, 1997 |volume=14 |issue=4 |page=12 }}{{sfn|Harvey|2004|p=81}} and then as head of the college placement bureau. Muskrat was well loved among her students because of her sense of humor and her commitment to sharing the Native American culture to her students. Ruth Muskrat would constantly remind her students to have pride in their heritage with her phrase "Indians are people too, don't forget that." She won the Henry Morgenthau Prize in 1926 for best use of her college education in the first year graduation.{{sfn|The Chicago Heights Star|1926|p=8}}{{sfn|Gridley|1947|p=14}} Throughout the 1920's, Bronson advocated for an education for Native Americans that was not assimilationist, but for one that would allow for "preservation of 'what was best' in Native cultures." "The Serpent" is a short story written by Bronson in 1925 which "challenges federal policy during the allotment period."{{Cite journal |last=Cavanaugh |first=Alexander |date=2020 |title=Re-membering cherokee justice in ruth muskrat bronson's "the serpent". |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2396316102 |journal=American Indian Quarterly |volume=44 |pages=36–58 |doi=10.5250/amerindiquar.44.1.0036 |s2cid=216236334 |id={{ProQuest|2396316102}} |url-access=subscription }}

In 1928, Muskrat married John F. Bronson and they adopted a native girl.{{sfn|Mount Holyoke College|2016}}

In 1931, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) created a new program to improve educational opportunities for Native Americans. Bronson was appointed as the first Guidance and Placement Officer of the bureau and tasked with helping graduates find viable employment.{{sfn|The Iola Register|1931|p=1}}{{sfn|The Escanaba Daily Press|1931|p=6}} In 1937, she was awarded the Indian Achievement Medal of the Indian Council Fire, the second woman to have received the award since its inception.{{sfn|The Miami Daily News-Record|1937|p=7}} She had previously been nominated for the award in its inaugural year in 1933.{{sfn|The Current Local|1933|p=6}} Bronson was in charge of distributing government loans and scholarships for students, as well as helping them find jobs. She worked at the BIA until 1943.{{sfn|Gridley|1947|p=14}}

File:Ruth Muskrat Bronson.jpg

Bronson spent a few years out of the workforce raising her daughter.{{sfn|Gridley|1947|p=14}} During this period, she wrote and published several books and articles, including Indians are People Too (1944),{{sfn|Bronson|1944}} The Church in Indian Life(1945),{{sfn|Bronson|1945}} and Shall We Repeat Indian History in Alaska? (1947).{{sfn|Cowger|2001|p=175}}

In 1945, Bronson began working with the recently established National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and soon emerged as a leader. She was appointed as the executive secretary of the organization and spent a decade monitoring legislative issues. She also established the NCAI's legislative news service.{{sfn|Harvey|2004|p=81}} During this period, she spoke at numerous tribal meetings throughout the country, promoting Native American progress.{{sfn|The Independent Record|1948|p=16}} Bronson advocated such issues as native water rights along the Colorado River,{{sfn|The Reno Evening Gazette|1953|p=14}} native rights in the Territory of Alaska,{{sfn|de Armond|1954|p=7}} and gaining quality medical care for American Indians. After ten years of serving as executive secretary, in 1955 Bronson was elected as treasurer of the NCAI.{{sfn|The News-Review|1955|p=11}} Tired of the contentiousness of national politics, she focused on ways to work directly with local communities.{{sfn|Harvey|2004|p=81}}

In 1957, Bronson moved to Arizona, where she served as a health education specialist at the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation for the Indian Health Service (part of the Department of Health and Human Services).{{sfn|Harvey|2004|p=81}} During the same period, she served as a vice president of the philanthropic ARROW Organization. She managed the education loan and scholarship fund of the organization, as well as advising tribes on community development. In 1962, Bronson was awarded the Oveta Culp Hobby Service Award from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare for her work serving Native Americans{{sfn|The Tucson Daily Citizen|1962|p=18}} and retired from government service.

She moved to Tucson.{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=321}} In 1963, Bronson became the national program chairman of the Community Development Foundation's American Indian section. The organization operated under the umbrella of the Save the Children Federation.{{sfn|Kuehlthau|1963|p=62}} After a stroke in 1972, Bronson slowed, but did not stop her activism for Native Americans. She advocated their determining their own development and leadership programs.{{sfn|Harvey|2004|p=82}} In 1978, Bronson was among recipients of the National Indian Child Conference's merit award for commitment to improving children's quality of life.{{sfn|The Alamogordo Daily News|1978|p=9}}

Bronson also revolutionized gender norms in the Cherokee Nation, as she followed the ways of male leaders by dressing in what looked good to her and what would get her into places that she wanted to go.{{cite journal |date=March 31, 1999 |title=It's only right – Cherokees writing Cherokee history. |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/362606939 |journal=Cherokee Advocate |id={{ProQuest|362606939}} }}

Bronson died on June 12, 1982, in Tucson, Arizona{{sfn|The New York Times|1982}} and was interred at Riverside Cemetery in Waterbury, Connecticut.{{cite web |title=Ruth Bronson Featured in Poetry Newsletter |url=https://riversidecemeteryct.org/news/work-of-ruth-muskrat-bronson-featured-in-poetry-newsletter/ |website=www.riversidecemeteryct.org |date=November 7, 2021 |publisher=Riverside Cemetery |access-date=12 March 2023}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin|30em}}

• {{cite book|last=Bronson|first=Ruth Muskrat|title=The Church in Indian Life|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qJUfHQAACAAJ|year=1945|publisher=Home Missions Council of North America|location=New York, New York|oclc=57142222}}
• {{cite book|last=Bronson|first=Ruth Muskrat|title=Indians are People Too|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89058379140;view=1up;seq=7|year=1944|publisher=Friendship Press|location=New York, New York|oclc=609271119}}
• {{cite book|last=Cowger|first=Thomas W. |title=The National Congress of American Indians: The Founding Years|url=https://archive.org/details/nationalcongress00thom|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/nationalcongress00thom/page/175 175]|year=2001|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|location=Lincoln, Nebraska|isbn=0-8032-6414-3}}
• {{cite news|last1=de Armond|first1=Bob|title=A Northern Notebook|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6113924/fairbanks_daily_newsminer/|access-date=August 4, 2016|newspaper=The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner|date=November 1, 1954|location=Fairbanks, Alaska|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite book|last=Gridley|first=Marion Eleanor|title=Indians of today. Sponsored by the Indian Council Fire|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89060403821;view=1up;seq=20|edition=2nd|year=1947|publisher=Millar Publishing Company|location=Chicago, Illinois|oclc=616116891}}
• {{cite book|editor-last1=Bataille|editor-first1=Gretchen M.|editor-last2=Lisa|editor-first2=Laurie|last1=Harvey|first1=Gretchen G.|title=Native American Women: A Biographical Dictionary|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9eaSAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA55|edition=2nd|year=2003|publisher=Routledge|location=New York, New York|isbn=978-1-135-95587-8|chapter=Bronson, Ruth Muskrat|pages=55–56}}
• {{cite book|editor-last1=Ware|editor-first1=Susan|editor-last2=Braukman|editor-first2=Stacy|last1=Harvey|first1=Gretchen G.|title=Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary Completing the Twentieth Century|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WSaMu4F06AQC&pg=PA80|volume=5|year=2004|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=978-0-674-01488-6|chapter=Bronson, Ruth Muskrat|pages=80–82}}
• {{cite news|last1=Kuehlthau|first1=Marge|title=Cherokee Gets Irish Up and Fights for Indians|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6114575/tucson_daily_citizen/|access-date=August 4, 2016|publisher=The Tucson Daily Citizen|date=November 22, 1963|location=Tucson, Arizona|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Parker|editor-first=Robert Dale|title=Changing Is Not Vanishing: A Collection of American Indian Poetry to 1930|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r-d-VMCTtqMC&pg=PA320|year=2011|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|isbn=978-0-8122-0006-5}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Miami Daily News-Record|1937}}|author=|title=Achievement Medal to Ruth Muskrat|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6110394/miami_daily_newsrecord/|access-date=August 4, 2016|publisher=The Miami Daily News-Record|date=September 21, 1937|location=Miami, Oklahoma|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Alamogordo Daily News|1978}}|author=|title=Chino one of Indian leaders receiving NICC merit Awards|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/profile/susun-wilkinson/clipnumber/64986/|access-date=August 4, 2016|publisher=The Alamogordo Daily News|date=December 1, 1978|location=Alamogordo, New Mexico|via = Newspaperarchive.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The News-Review|1955}}|author=|title=Indians Conclude 21st Convention Make Requests|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6113999/the_newsreview/|access-date=August 4, 2016|publisher=The News-Review|date=September 6, 1955|location=Roseburg, Oregon|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Reno Evening Gazette|1953}}|author=|title=Indians Press River Water Claim|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/profile/susun-wilkinson/clipnumber/65003/|access-date=August 4, 2016|publisher=The Reno Evening Gazette|date=December 11, 1953|location=Reno, Nevada|via = Newspaperarchive.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Iola Register|1931}}|author=|title=Miss Muskrat in Gov't Service|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6110205/miss_muskrat_in_govt_service_the_iola/|access-date=August 4, 2016|publisher=The Iola Register|date=January 9, 1931|location=Iola, Kansas|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Brook Reporter|1923}}|author=|title=Miss Ruth Muskrat, Indian Girl, Dines at White House|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6110013/the_brook_reporter/|access-date=August 4, 2016|publisher=The Brook Reporter|date=December 21, 1923|location=Brook, Indiana|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Independent Record|1948}}|author=|title=Montana Indian Tribes Will Honor Ruth Muskrat Bronson at Annual Meeting of T.B. Association|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6113460/the_independent_record/|access-date=August 4, 2016|publisher=The Independent Record|date=August 26, 1948|location=Helena, Montana|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Chicago Heights Star|1926}}|author=|title=Ruth Muskrat|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6111736/ruth_muskrat_the_chicago_heights_star/|access-date=August 4, 2016|publisher=The Chicago Heights Star|date=July 27, 1926|location=Chicago Heights, Illinois|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite web|ref={{harvid|Mount Holyoke College|2016}}|author=|title=Ruth Muskrat Bronson|url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/175/ruth-muskrat-bronson25|publisher=Mount Holyoke College|access-date=August 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160804184351/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/175/ruth-muskrat-bronson25|archive-date=August 4, 2016|location=South Hadley, Massachusetts|date=2016}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Winston-Salem Journal|1922}}|author=|title=Ruth Muskrat, Indian Girl, Going to China|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6109924/winstonsalem_journal/|access-date=August 4, 2016|agency=AP|newspaper=The Winston-Salem Journal|date=March 31, 1922|location=Winston-Salem, North Carolina|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Escanaba Daily Press|1931}}|author=|title=Ruth Muskrat Is Appointed Guide of Indian Girls|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6110165/the_escanaba_daily_press/|access-date=August 4, 2016|agency=AP|publisher=The Escanaba Daily Press|date=January 27, 1931|location=Escanaba, Michigan|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The New York Times|1982}}|author=|title=Ruth Muskrat Bronson, 84; A Specialist in Indian Affairs|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/24/obituaries/ruth-muskrat-bronson-84-a-specialist-in-indian-affairs.html|access-date=August 3, 2016|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 24, 1982|location=New York City, New York}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Tucson Daily Citizen|1962}}|author=|title=Tucsonian Honored For Indian Work|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6113498/tucsonian_honored_for_indian_work/|access-date=August 4, 2016|newspaper=The Tucson Daily Citizen|date=April 13, 1962|location=Tucson, Arizona|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}
• {{cite news|ref={{harvid|The Current Local|1933}}|author=|title=Who is the Greatest Indian of Today?|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6110531/who_is_the_greatest_indian_of_today/|access-date=August 4, 2016|agency=AP|publisher=The Current Local|date=August 31, 1933|location=Van Buren, Missouri|via = Newspapers.com}} {{open access}}

{{refend}}

• {{find a Grave|48165845}}
• {{Commons category-inline|Ruth Muskrat}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bronson, Ruth Muskrat}}

Category:1897 births

Category:1982 deaths

Category:People from Indian Territory

Category:Cherokee Nation women writers

Category:Cherokee Nation writers

Category:American Indigenous rights activists

Category:20th-century American educators

Category:Native American poets

Category:American women poets

Category:20th-century American women writers

Category:20th-century American poets

Category:Mount Holyoke College alumni

Category:Northern Oklahoma College alumni

Category:20th-century Native American writers

Category:20th-century Native American women