Catherine Weldon

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Catherine Weldon was a widow from New York whose commitment to the cause of Native Americans led her to the Indian territories of the Dakotas in the 1890s. Derek Walcott references her and her life in his epic poem, Omeros, where the Native American genocide story is placed alongside that of the death of the Aruacs in St Lucia, in the Caribbean sea. Walcott's treatment of her as a fictional creation seems to be faithful to the historical and biographical accounts that are available. Weldon became private secretary to Sitting Bull during the time that the Ghost Dance movement was making its way through the plains tribes, creating uneasiness among white settlers and frontier military units.