Also during this period, Zitkála-Šá met American professor and composer William F. Hanson, who taught music at Brigham Young University. Together, in 1910, they started their collaboration on the music for "The Sun Dance Opera," for which Zitkala-Sa wrote the libretto and songs. She based it on sacred Sioux rituals, which the federal government prohibited the Ute from performing on the reservation. The opera premiered in Utah in 1913, with dancing and some parts performed by the Ute with lead singing roles filled by non-natives. According to historian Tadeusz Lewandowski, it was the first Native opera. It debuted in Vernal, Utah to high local praise.