Mary Ellicott Arnold (April 23, 1876[2] – 1968) was an American social activist, teacher and writer best known for In the Land of the Grasshopper Song, the memoir she wrote with Mabel Reed (February 6, 1876 – December, 1962) on their experiences as Bureau of Indian Affairs employees, 1908–1909.

[3] A native of Staten Island, New York, Arnold moved at an early age to Somerville, New Jersey where she began her childhood friendship with Mabel Reed, a companionship that later matured into a life partnership.

Their employer, City and Suburban Homes Company, was a philanthropic organization building affordable, decent housing for the working poor.

Although the Bureau of Indian Affairs expected them to enforce white cultural values, they instead accepted Karok practices and established a close working friendship with Essie, a native woman with three husbands.

[7] In 2016, Nova Scotia playwright Lindsay Kyte illustrated this as a musical true story, Tompkinsville about a community built by the residents themselves, assisted by Arnold and Reed, and the town priest, Jimmy Tompkins and Rev.