They supported passage of the Dawes Severalty Act by Congress in 1887, which provided individual households of Native Americans in Indian Territory with portions of land for farming, and United States citizenship.

Senator Henry Dawes (R-Massachusetts), sponsor of the act, later said that "the new government Indian policy was born of and nursed by this women' association.

After Stone married Reverend James Franklin Swanson, they lived in Georgia for several years for his work.

After a few months on the continent, she was drawn into temperance work in England and addressed drawing-room and church meetings in London and other cities.

On the voyage to England, she met Professor Richard Quinton, a native of London and a lecturer on historical and astronomical subjects.

Bonney agreed to supply the means needed for printing, and Quinton to plan and work; she studied in libraries, prepared literature and petitions and circulated them through the sympathizers and helpers she gained in many states.

The first petition was enlarged and she prepared a leaflet of facts and special appeal, and sent those out widely to leading citizens, and to women in many kinds of Christian and philanthropic work.

In June 1881 the constitution drafted by Quinton was adopted, and the society that day elected an executive board, nominated at her request by the pastors of the churches, and became known as the Indian Treaty-keeping and Protective Association.

Now known as the Women's National Indian Association, the organization established branches, officers or helpers in forty states.