Ruth Muskrat Bronson
| Ruth Muskrat Bronson | |
|---|---|
1923
|
|
| Born |
Ruth Margaret Muskrat October 3, 1897 White Water, Delaware Nation Reservation, Indian Territory |
| Died | June 12, 1982 (aged 84) Tucson, Arizona |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | poet, educator, Indian rights activist |
| Years active | 1925-1982 |
| Known for | first Guidance and Placement Officer of the Bureau of Indian Affairs |
Ruth Muskrat Bronson (October 3, 1897 – June 12, 1982) was a Cherokee poet, educator and Indian rights activist. After completing her education, Bronson became the first Guidance and Placement Officer of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She then served as executive secretary for the National Congress of American Indians and created their legislative news service. After a decade of work in Washington, D.C., Bronson moved to Arizona and served as a health education specialist for the Indian Health Service and was honored upon her retirement from government service by the Oveta Culp Hobby Service Award from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. She continued working for Native American rights for involvement in their own development and leadership in the private sector until her death.
Ruth Margaret Muskrat was born on October 3, 1897 in White Water, on the Delaware Nation Reservation in Indian Territory to Ida Lenora (née Kelly), of Irish-English stock and a transplant from Missouri, and James Ezekial Muskrat, a Cherokee, whose forebearers had made the Trail of Tears from Georgia to Indian Territory in the 19th century. When she was ten years old, she witnessed the disruption caused to the lives of her nation when the Curtis Act of 1898, an amendment of the Dawes Act, extended allotment over the Five Civilized Tribes. At the age of fourteen, she enrolled in preparatory school at the Oklahoma Institute of Technology in Tonkawa, graduating in 1916. She went on to further her education at Henry Kendall College in Tulsa and at Northeastern State Teachers College. Financial hardship then forced her to stop her education briefly and teach for two years to earn sufficient funds to continue her schooling.
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