Zerviah Gould Mitchell

Mitchell first challenged the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ treatment of Native Americans in 1857, when she petitioned to have the guardianship removed from four lots of land on the Fall River Indian Reservation.^[10] She held ancestral land rights to the lots on the reservation, but the land had been entrusted to white merchant and justice of the peace, Benjamin F. Winslow (1813–1883).^[11][12] Mitchell's land rights were affirmed by 1861, yet she received considerable hostility from other residents of the reservation, who saw her land claim as purely self-serving. Nevertheless, her petition has since been considered an important contributing factor towards the enfranchisement of Native Americans in Massachusetts in 1869, which resulted in the end of the guardianship system.^[10][2]

Following the death of her husband in 1859, Mitchell relocated to her homestead in Betty's Neck, on the Indian reservation in Lakeville with her daughters Melinda and Charlotte, both of whom were unmarried. Mitchell and her daughters supported themselves at Betty's Neck through basket weaving, telling fortunes, and selling flowers and herbs. In 1878, she published Indian History, Biography and Genealogy: Pertaining to the Good Sachem Massasoit of the Wampanoag Tribe, and His Descendants, which was written with historian Ebenezer W. Peirce, who went to Mitchell for guidance on Massasoit's biography and Wampanoag history and culture. After publishing her book, she often received visits from scholars and news reporters, and she played an important role in educating about the Wampanoag people.^{[citation needed]}

In 1861, she was listed as Fall River Wampanoag on the Earle Report.^[13]

Mitchell died at her home in Betty's Neck, Lakeville, on March 5, 1898, aged 90. Her death was reported in The Boston Journal and the New York Herald, both of which described her as a Native American “Princess”.^[9]

Pulsipher, Jenny H. (2003). ""Subjects... Unto the Same King": New England Indians and the Use of Royal Political Power". Massachusetts Historical Review. 5: 55. JSTOR 25081179.