page_title: Sherman Coolidge
section_title: Society of American Indians
hierarchical_section_title: Sherman Coolidge / Society of American Indians
caption_attribution_description: English: The Quarterly Journal of Society of American Indians masthead. Other information No.
context_page_description: Sherman Coolidge, an Episcopal Church priest and educator, helped found and lead the Society of American Indians. That first national American Indian rights organization run by and for Native Americans pioneered twentieth-century Pan-Indianism, the philosophy and movement promoting unity among American Indians regardless of tribal affiliation.
  Coolidge spent twenty-six years preaching and teaching at Wind River Reservation at Fort Washakie, Wyoming, as well as traveled throughout United States lecturing on behalf of American Indians. In 1923, Coolidge served on President Calvin Coolidge's "Committee of One Hundred" to review and advise on American Indian policy. In the 1920s, Coolidge was transferred to Colorado where he served as Canon at the Cathedral of St. John in the Wilderness in Denver, Colorado, and in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
context_section_description: Coolidge helped found and led the Society of American Indians (1911-1923), the first national American Indian rights organization developed and run by American Indians.  Of all the Society leaders, Coolidge's association with the Society was the longest.  The society pioneered twentieth-century Pan-Indianism, the philosophy and 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, ethnology and ministry, who shared the enthusiasm and faith of white reformers in the inevitability of progress through education and governmental action. 
   The Society met at academic institutions, maintained a Washington headquarters, conducted annual conferences and published a quarterly journal of American Indian literature by American Indian authors. Among the first proponents of an "American Indian Day", it also fought for Native American citizenship as well as opening the U.S. Court of Claims to all tribes and bands in United States. A forerunner of modern organizations such as the National Congress of American Indians, the Society anticipated by decades important Indian reforms: a major reorganization of the Indian school system in the late 1920s, the codification of Indian law in the 1930s, and the opening of the U.S. Court of Claims to Indians in the 1940s. In September 1915, Reverend Coolidge, speaking as President of the Society, appealed for recognition of American Indians as citizens and called upon the country to observe a national "American Indian Day."  In response, President Calvin Coolidge issued a proclamation on September 28, 1915, which declared the second Saturday of each May as American Indian Day. Reverend Coolidge traveled throughout United States making addresses and delivering lectures on behalf of the Society and American Indians.
caption: The Society of American Indians was the first national American Indian rights organization run by and for American Indians.
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