Ely Parker’s Letter to Harriet Maxwell Converse about Indian Policy Reform (1885)
Explanation and Analysis of the Documents
Following his years in public service, Parker moved to Fairfield, Connecticut, and entered into various business enterprises. He won and then lost a fortune in the stock market. In 1876 he moved to New York City and became a clerk in the New York City Police Department, where he became close friends with Harriet Maxwell Converse, a poet, magazine writer, ethnographer, and political activist, and aided her as an informant and confidant. Born in 1836, in Elmira, New York, Harriet Maxwell Converse had learned about Indian culture and society first from her father and grandfather. When she and Parker met, probably in 1881, Converse was an established poet and writer, and although she had some interest in Indian history and folklore, she had yet to explore these topics at length. Through their collaboration, however, she became increasingly interested in and politically active on behalf of New York State's Indian population and helped to...
