All of them helped their parents sell the famous baskets Philomene made in tourist towns.

In addition to that, Molly learned traditional dances and performed for tourists who stayed at hotels.

[11] Although she had returned to her life as a performer, she did not let this crush her spirits and she began to write and create her own music and costumes.

Her family is said to have described her as “A happy and completely free spirit.” [11] Spotted Elk's career is marked by a tension between her desire for fame and success as an actress and performer, and the racist expectations of White American and European society that forced her to don skimpy buckskin costumes and act out stereotypes in order to do so.

Returning to rural Maine after living in New York and Paris, wrote her biographer, "was like an old pair of moccasins that one dreamed of during years of high-heeled city life—only to find, upon slipping into them, that they felt less comfortable than remembered because the shape of one's feet had changed.

It was as a result of winning a dance competition of Natives Americans in Oklahoma that she was adopted by the Cheyenne and given the name of Spotted Elk.

From there they returned to the United States, where Elk spent the rest of her life on the Penobscot Reservation.