Zitkála-Šá, born 1876, was raised on the South Dakota Yankton Indian reservation before being recruited to a Quaker manual labor school and given the name Gertrude Simmons. Having her heritage stripped left a lasting impression, and at a young age she began writing and publishing poetry and articles, and collaborated on an opera, the first by a Native American author. She and her husband worked at the Bureau of Indian Affairs and lectured nationally, lobbying for citizenship rights for Native Americans who had to renounce tribal affiliations or land allotments to gain citizenship. The article she co-authored on the exploitation of Indigenous people in Oklahoma influenced the development of the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act, which returned governance and land management to Native Americans. She co-founded the National Council of American Indians in 1926 and served as the president until her death in 1938. While an activist in D.C. she lived in this stone bungalow in Arlington County.