page_title: Society of American Indians
section_title: Red Progressives
hierarchical_section_title: Society of American Indians / Red Progressives
caption_attribution_description: English: Angel De Cora, painter
context_page_description: The Society of American Indians was the first national American Indian rights organization run by and for American Indians. The Society pioneered twentieth century Pan-Indianism, the movement promoting unity among American Indians regardless of tribal affiliation. The Society was a forum for a new generation of American Indian leaders known as Red Progressives, prominent professionals from the fields of medicine, nursing, law, government, education, anthropology and ministry. They shared the enthusiasm and faith of Progressive Era white reformers in the inevitability of progress through education and governmental action.
  The Society met at academic institutions, maintained a Washington, D.C. headquarters, conducted annual conferences and published a quarterly journal of American Indian literature by American Indian authors. The Society was one of the first proponents of an "American Indian Day." It was at the forefront of the fight for Indian citizenship and opening the U.S. Court of Claims to all tribes and bands in United States. The Indian Citizenship Law, signed on June 2, 1924, was a major achievement for the Society.
context_section_description: The early leaders of the Society were known as the "Red Progressives". Progressive American Indians referred to themselves as such because they shared the enthusiasm and faith of the white reformers in the inevitability of progress, and belief in social improvement through education and governmental action. All them fought hard and for what they had won and expected that gains could not be made without pains. They had a good deal of the psychology of the self-made man and very little of the psychology of the passive victim of circumstance. The Society was born of hope, rather than despair.  Not the last stand of and embattled people, but a new force in American life. The choice of Columbus Day for the opening of the founding conference of the Indian reformers, October 12, 1911, was to be a new beginning for American Indians.
  Society members were educated professionals from the fields of medicine, nursing, law, government, education, anthropology, ethnology and clergy. There were no chiefs or tribal leaders amongst them. The most important single influence at the conference was that of eastern Indian boarding schools, especially Carlisle.  The bond among Carlisle alumni was so strong that it provided the major source of Pan-Indian leadership. Red Progressives remained in close touch with tribal life and used both Indian and American names. Many were the sons and daughters of influential tribal leaders from New York, the Great Lakes, Oklahoma and the Great Plains. Of the expanded committee, six were born or had lived in Oklahoma, and almost all were from Eastern, Prairie or Plains Tribes: four from tribes of the Six Nations Confederacy, two from the Lakota, two from the Five Civilized Tribes, three from the Chippewa, one each from the Blackfoot, Pottawattamie, Winnebago, Omaha, Osage, Apache and Klamath, and born into progressive families and tribes with social and marital connections to non-Indians.  Also many were previously or currently employed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.  Their perspective was unique, and they used their education to champion American Indian rights.
  In April 1912, when the proceedings of the Columbus conference were published, Society membership had increased to 101 actives, about one-third of whom were women, and approximately the same number of non-native associates. By 1913, active members grew to the high point of nearly 230 individuals representing almost 30 tribes.  Membership included Arthur Bonnicastle, (Osage), community leader; Gertrude Bonnin, (Yankton Dakota), educator and author; Rev. Benjamin Brave, (Oglala Lakota), minister; Estaiene M. DePeltquestangue, (Kickapoo); nurse; William A. Durant, (Choctaw), lawyer; Rev. Philip Joseph Deloria, (Onondaga), priest; Rev. John Eastman, (Santee Dakota), minister; Father Philip B. Gordon, (Chippewa), priest; Albert Hensley, (Winnebago); missionary; John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt, (Tuscarora), linguist and ethnographer; William J. Kershaw, (Menominee), attorney; Susan LaFlesche, (Omaha), physician; Francis LaFlesche, (Omaha), anthropologist; Rev. Delos Lone Wolf (Kiowa), minister; Louis McDonald, (Ponca); businessman; Luther Standing Bear, (Oglala Lakota), educator; Dennison Wheelock, (Oneida), musician, composer, lawyer; and Chauncey Yellow Robe, (Sicangu Lakota), educator.
  The official photograph of the Inaugural Society Conference in Columbus, Ohio, shows members attired in the fashion of the day, the Indian clergyman among them wearing clerical collars. There's no hint "of Indianness" in their costume with the exception of Nora McFarland from Carlisle who, wearing an Indian dress, was seated at the center of the group. The Society joined with reformist progressives in opposition to Wild West shows, theatrical troupes, circuses and most motion picture firms. The Society believed that theatrical shows were demoralizing and degrading to Indians, and discouraged Indians from Wild Westing. Chauncey Yellow Robe wrote that "Indians should be protected from the curse of the Wild West show schemes, wherein the Indians have been led to the white man's 
caption: Angel De Cora
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