Although the Attorney General of Oklahoma ruled she could not serve, she defied the order and completed a two-year term on the Lindsay School Board.

In 1928, she was appointed by an assembly of 400-500 Choctaw and Chickasaw tribal members from throughout Oklahoma to chair their convention and then to represent their interests as ambassador in Washington, D.C., on the pending coal and asphalt resources bill.

[5] Levi Colbert, a paternal great-grandfather, served as Andrew Jackson's standard-bearer at the Battle of New Orleans.

[6] Her great-grandfather, Nathaniel Folsom, married Aiahnichih Ohoyoh, a cousin of noted leader Mushulatubbee.

[10] She married Michael Conlan, originally of Black River Falls, Wisconsin, on November 6, 1894 in Atoka, in the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory.

[13] In 1899, she was the only delegate from Indian Territory to attend the convention of the General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC) in Los Angeles.

[22] In 1913, Conlan worked on a Century Chest Project for the Ladies Aid Society of the First English Lutheran Church of Oklahoma City.

She was responsible for gathering items from various Oklahoma tribes, including books and documents in their native languages as well as cultural artifacts.

[1] In 1919, Conlan began working as the curator of the Native American collection of the museum run by the Oklahoma Historical Society.

[18] Because she was Choctaw, Conlan was often able to secure gifts and items from tribal members for the museum collection that others might not have been able to acquire.

[14] She served as the main collector of Native American artifacts and documents for the museum until 1942 when she was dismissed from the post.

[24] The committee met to prepare the recommendations and broke with precedent, sending Conlan and Estelle Chisholm Ward to Washington, D.C., to argue in favor of passage of a bill proposed by U.S. House Representative Wilburn Cartwright for sale of the coal and asphalt holdings, as well as continuing the restrictions of selling Indian lands.