Helen Maria Hunt Jackson (1830-1885) was an American writer best known as the author of Ramona, a novel about the ill-treatment of Indians in Southern California. In 1879, her interests turned to the plight of the Native Americans after attending a lecture in Boston by Ponca Chief Standing Bear, who described the forcible removal of the Ponca Indians from their Nebraska reservation. Jackson was angered by what she heard regarding the unfair treatment at the hands of government agents and became an activist. She started investigating and publicizing the wrongdoing, circulating petitions, raising money, and writing letters to the New York Times on behalf of the Poncas. She also started writing a book condemning the Indian policy of the government and the history of broken treaties. Her other works include Bits About Home Matters (1873), Saxe Holm"s Stories (1874), Mercy Philbrick"s Choice (1876), Ramona (1884), Between Whiles (1888) and Bits of Travel at Home (1878).