Alaskan native John E. Smelcer is the only surviving speaker, reader, and writer of his native language, Ahtna. He is the author of three poetry books and two poetry chapbooks.
A Santee Sioux, born in Red Falls, Minnesota, Charles Eastman was raised by his grandmother and uncle in Manitoba, Canada, where he learned Native American traditions and lore. As a teenager he returned to his father's family and attended mission schools and Beloit College. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1887 and from Boston University School of Medicine in 1890. Although his background made him unwelcome in some parts of white society and his education made him uneasy in Native American cultures, he worked for his people throughout his life as a doctor, as a representative in Washington, D.C., and as a founder of the Society of American Indians. His first published book, Indian… Boyhood (1902), written for children, tells the stories and traditions of the Sioux nation. Red Hunters and the Animal People (1904), Old Indian Days (1907), and Wigwam Evenings (1909), written with the help of his wife, Elaine Goodale Eastman, continue in this vein, but his later work, including The Soul of the Indian (1911), The Indian Today (1915), and his autobiography, From the Deep Woods to Civilization (1916), attempts to interpret Native American culture for white society, describing the problems of assimilation.
Kate Chopin (1850-1904) was born in St. Louis. She moved to Louisiana where she wrote two novels and numerous stories. Because The Awakeningwas widely condemned, publication of Chopin's third story collection was cancelled. The Awakeningwas rediscovered by scholars in the 1960s and 1970s and is her best-known work. Sandra M. Gilbert teaches at the University of California, Davis.