This essay reads Frances E. W. Harper’s 1892 novel Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted in the context of discourses and policies around Native Americans in the period. Harper’s allusions to North American Indians and references to civilization and savagery throughout the text position African Americans in opposition to Native Americans. By rhetorically setting the two groups apart, Harper advocates for a different type of education for African Americans instead of the state-sponsored, culture-eradicating boarding school model of Native American education at the time.