Author. Christine Quintasket was better known as "Mourning Dove," a literary name she gave herself as an adult. Her Native American name was Humishuma. During the early years of the 20th Century, she became a well-known Native American novelist, politician and public speaker. She was the daughter of Joseph Quintasket, from the Okanogan Tribe and her mother, Lucy Stukin, from the Colville Tribe. Her mother died when she was only fourteen. An older Indian woman named Teequalt, who acted as a grandmother, came to live with her family and helped her spiritually. Her limited formal education came from the Goodwin Mission School in Kettle Falls, Washington; the Fort Spokane School in Washington for Indians; Fort Shaw School in Montana; and later a school in Alberta, Canada. Eventually, she returned to Washington. She was married twice, but never had any children. Her second husband was Fred Galler. By day she was a migrant worker as a vegetable and fruit picker, by night, she penned stories. She completed four novels: in 1927 “Cogewea-The Half Blood,” in 1933 “ Coyote Stories,” “Tales of the Okanogans,” and “Mourning Dove: A Salishan Autobiography.” She lived a hard, difficult live. Becoming confused and disoriented in the last week of her life, she was admitted to Eastern State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital at Medical Lake, and her cause of death was listed as: Manic Depressive Psychosis. Her gravestone reads simply “Mrs. Fred Galler.” With her sporadic formal education, there were many who helped edit and submit her works for publications, hence their names appear on the cover of the books with and without her name. She was one of the first Native American women to author a novel. Many of her stories were pulled from Native American folklore stories.