During the 1930s and the Great Depression, Mathews was politically active within the Osage Nation.
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His Life and Death of an Oilman: The Career of E. W. Marland (1951) was his only biography; it recounts a notable figure of the oil boom who also served as governor of the state.
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As the people took advantage of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 and the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act, Mathews helped the Osage Nation restore its self-government.
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Prior to the onset of WWII, Mourning Dove, John Milton Oskison, John Joseph Mathews, Zitkala-Sa, Charles Eastman and D'Arcy McNickle published literary works; however, these works were relatively few in number.