Women's National Indian Association

Bonney and Quinton united in the 1880s against the encroachment of white settlers on land set aside for Native Americans in Indian Territory.

[2] Initially founded in 1879 in reaction to the prospect of opening Oklahoma Indian Territory to white settlement, additional branches quickly expanded in the 1880s.

[2] The first crusade was a five-year mission devoted to gaining political rights for Indians to vote as United States citizens.

[4] Bonney retired from the presidency of the WNIA in November 1884; she was succeeded by Mary Lowe Dickinson, who was elected to the office.

[2] The Association's aims were to gain assimilation of American Indians into mainstream society, including to encourage their becoming Christian.

Its main objectives were to assimilate Indians through Christian education and missionary work, and abolish the reservation system.

[5] Quinton described the Association's foundation as a "united effort to move our government to grant a legal status to Indians, the protection of law, lands in severalty, and education.

In addition, giving households individual plots of land to farm was seen as key to producing subsistence farmers.