<P> Zitkála - Šá was also active in the 1920s in the movement for women's rights, joining the General Federation of Women's Clubs in 1921 . This grassroots organization was dedicated to diversity in its membership and to maintaining a public voice for women's concerns . Through the GFWC she created the Indian Welfare Committee in 1924 . She helped initiate a government investigation into the exploitation of Native Americans in Oklahoma and the attempts being made to defraud them of drilling rights and leasing fees for their oil - rich lands . Zitkala - Ša was co-author of "Oklahoma's Poor Rich Indians: An Orgy of Graft and Exploitation of the Five Civilized Tribe - Legalized Robbery". The article exposed several corporations that had robbed and even murdered Native Americans in Oklahoma to gain access to their lands . </P> <P> Its influence contributed to Congressional passage of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 under the President Franklin D. Roosevelt administration . He had high - level aides also working on American Indian issues to improve their lives . Sometimes described as the' Indian New Deal,' the law encouraged tribes to restore and adopt self - government, along a model of elected representative government . It returned management of their lands to Native Americans . </P> <P> In her work for the NCAI in 1924, Zitkála - Šá ran a voter - registration drive among Native Americans . She encouraged them to support the Curtis Bill, which she believed would be favorable for Indians . Though the bill granted Native Americans US citizenship, it did not grant those living on reservations the right to vote in local and state elections . Zitkala - Ša continued to work for civil rights, and better access to health care and education for Native Americans until her death in 1938 . </P> <P> Zitkála - Šá died on January 26, 1938 in Washington, DC at the age of sixty - one . She is buried under the name of Gertrude Simmons Bonnin in Arlington National Cemetery . Since the late 20th century, the University of Nebraska has reissued many of her writings on Native American culture . </P>

When she returns to live on the south dakota reservation in the summer