A Century of Dishonor is a non-fiction book by Helen Hunt Jackson first published in 1881 that chronicled the experiences of Native Americans in the United States, focusing on injustices.

Jackson attended a meeting in Boston in 1879 at which Standing Bear, a Ponca, told how the federal government forcibly removed his tribe from its ancestral homeland in the wake of the creation of the Great Sioux Reservation.

The book can be broken down into four major themes: Jackson begins by providing in her "Introductory" a summary of the policies and positions of the United States relative to the Native American population; however, because of the time in which she was writing, she refers to them as Indians.

[6] The seven chapters that follow the introduction each describe the general history of the Delaware, the Cheyenne, the Nez Percé, the Sioux, the Ponca, the Winnebagoes, and the Cherokee, as well as the way their cultures shaped the way the United States took advantage of them.

[7] In addition to using evidence that the United States provided of their mistreatment of Native Americans, Jackson also took great care to ensure that she included information on how each of the people viewed themselves and how they felt about the way they were treated.

Jackson attended a meeting in Boston in 1879 at which Standing Bear, a Ponca, told how the federal government forcibly removed his tribe from its ancestral homeland in the wake of the creation of the Great Sioux Reservation.

At the start of the book, she provides an appendix of the reports and accounts that she relied on including records of prices that white men paid for scalps (of Native Americans) and personal testimonials of grievances that Sioux had experienced.

However, this was soon followed by a larger printing from Harper & Row in their Torchbook series in 1965, with an introductory essay by Andrew F. Rolle but without the fifteen documents that served as an appendix of supporting evidence in the original work and its first reprinting.

"[15] Over time, her work has been recognized for its important impact on the nation's understanding of the mistreatment of Native Americans by the United States and prompted discussion on the role of women's voices in history both publicly and academically.

Although there was a good deal of adverse criticism even at the time of its publication, A Century of Dishonor, along with Jackson's many magazine articles, letters to editors, and personal contacts, had an effect, and in March 1887 Congress passed a bill partially rectifying the particular situation of the Ponca people whose cause had first attracted her attention.

Christine Holbo argues that, 'The divide separating A Century of Dishonor’s legalistic human rights activism from the kaleidoscopic and even campy aesthetics of Ramona deserves more attention.