As the secretary for SAI, Zitkála-Šá corresponded with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She began to criticize practices of the BIA, such as their attempt at the national boarding schools to prohibit Native American children from using their native languages and cultural practices. She reported incidents of abuse resulting from children's refusal to pray in a Christian manner. Her husband was dismissed from his BIA office at the Ute reservation in 1916. The couple and their son relocated to Washington, D.C., where they fought to find allies.