![Improved Order of Red Men certificate 1889](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Improved_Order_of_Red_Men_certificate_1889.jpg)
The Improved Order of Red Men is a
fraternal organization
A fraternity (from Latin ''frater'': "brother"; whence, " brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club or fraternal order traditionally of men associated together for various religious or secular aims. Fraternity i ...
established in North America in 1834. Their rituals and regalia are modeled after those
assumed by men of the era to be used by
Native Americans. Despite the name, the order was formed solely by, and for, white men. The organization claimed a membership of about half a million in 1935, but has declined to a little more than 15,000.
History
On December 16, 1773, a group of colonists — all men, and members of the
Sons of Liberty
The Sons of Liberty was a loosely organized, clandestine, sometimes violent, political organization active in the Thirteen American Colonies founded to advance the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. It pl ...
— met in Boston to protest the tax on tea imposed by England. When their protest went unheeded, they disguised themselves as their idea of
Mohawk people, proceeded to Boston harbor, and dumped overboard 342 chests of English tea. (See
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell t ...
.)
In the late 18th century, the Tammany Societies, named after
Tamanend
Tamanend (historically also known as Taminent, Tammany, Saint Tammany or King Tammany, "the Affable," ) (–) was the Chief of Chiefs and Chief of the Turtle Clan of the Lenni-Lenape nation in the Delaware Valley signing the Peace Treaty wit ...
, were formed. The most well-known of these was New York City's Society of St. Tammany, which grew into a major
political machine known as "
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...
."
For the next 35 years, the original Sons of Liberty and the Sons of St. Tamina groups went their own way, under many different names.
Around 1813, a disenchanted group created the philanthropic "Society of Red Men" at historic
Fort Mifflin
Fort Mifflin, originally called Fort Island Battery and also known as Mud Island Fort, was commissioned in 1771 and sits on Mud Island (or Deep Water Island) on the Delaware River below Philadelphia, Pennsylvania near Philadelphia International A ...
in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
.
The organization grew in the 1820s. Parallel lines of advancement were offered in the Order of Red Men: a series of military titles and a set of “Indian rankings.”
Class and ethnic differences introduced by new immigrants,
anti-Masonic persecutions, attacks on fraternal groups based on excessive drinking, and, ultimately, a wide-spread
cholera epidemic
Seven cholera pandemics have occurred in the past 200 years, with the first pandemic originating in India in 1817. The seventh cholera pandemic is officially a current pandemic and has been ongoing since 1961, according to a World Health Organiz ...
in 1832 led to the decline of the organization.
In 1834, the Improved Order of Red Men (IORM) was started as a revival in Baltimore. It was focused on temperance, patriotism and American History. In 1835, with only two groups in place (called "tribes" by the IORM), a larger IORM was organized. Unlike the original Order, the IORM uses only expanded Native American titles.
Rather than the public display of Native American costumes, the IORM uses its regalia in private gatherings.
In 1886, its membership requirements were defined in the same
pseudo-Indigenous phrasing as the rest of the constitution:
In one 1886 "tribe", a member's 12 cent a week dues went into a fund which was used to pay disability benefits to members at a rate of about "three fathoms per seven suns" ($3/week) for up to "six moons" (6 months) and then two dollars a week. Some medical care ("a suitable nurse") was available, and also a death benefit of one hundred dollars. The fund was invested in bonds, mortgages, and "Building Association Stock". Meetings were held weekly on Friday nights.
Organization
The Order has a three tiered structure. Local units are called "tribes" and are presided over by a "
Sachem
Sachems and sagamores are paramount chiefs among the Algonquians or other Native American tribes of northeastern North America, including the Iroquois. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms (c. 1622) from different Eastern Al ...
" and a board of directors. Local meeting sites are called "
Wigwam
A wigwam, wickiup, wetu (Wampanoag), or wiigiwaam (Ojibwe, in syllabics: ) is a semi-permanent domed dwelling formerly used by certain Native American tribes and First Nations people and still used for ceremonial events. The term ''wickiup' ...
s". The state level is called the "
Reservation" and governed by a "Great Sachem" and "Great Council" or "Board of Chiefs". The national level is the "Great Council of the United States". The Great Council consists of the "Great Incohonee" (president), and a "Board of Great Chiefs", which includes the "Great Senior
Sagamore" (first vice-president), "Great Junior Sagamore", "Great Chief of Records" (secretary), "Great Keeper of the
Wampum
Wampum is a traditional shell bead of the Eastern Woodlands tribes of Native Americans. It includes white shell beads hand-fashioned from the North Atlantic channeled whelk shell and white and purple beads made from the quahog or Western Nor ...
" (treasurer) and "
Prophet
In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...
" (past president). The headquarters of the Order has been in
Waco, Texas
Waco ( ) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the st ...
, since at least 1979. They maintain an official
museum and library in Waco.
Auxiliaries and side degrees
A
side degree of the order was founded in 1890 as the
National Haymakers' Association. There was also once a uniformed division called the Knights of Tammany, as well as a group called the Chieftains League, which consisted of members who had been exalted to the Chief Degree (see below) and were in good standing within their respective "tribes".
In 1952, the Order created the Degree of
Hiawatha
Hiawatha ( , also : ), also known as Ayenwathaaa or Aiionwatha, was a precolonial Native American leader and co-founder of the Iroquois Confederacy. He was a leader of the Onondaga people, the Mohawk people, or both. According to some account ...
, as a youth auxiliary for males 8 and up. Most of the members of the Degree of Hiawatha were concentrated in
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...
. In 1979 there were less than 5,000 members in approximately 125 "Councils".
The Order female auxiliary is the
Degree of Pocahontas The Degree of Pocahontas are the female auxiliary of the Improved Order of Red Men, an American fraternal order. Despite using names based on common non-Native ideas about Native Americans, it was formed solely by and for, white women. Membership ...
and dates to the 1880s and the Degree of
Anona, a junior order of the Degree of Pocahontas, was formed in 1952.
Membership
The Improved Order of the Red Men grew in membership in the late 19th century. It reached 519,942 members in forty-six states in 1921, but had declined to 31,789 in 32 states in 1978 and to 15,251 by 2011.
Until 1974, the Order was open to whites only. That year the 106th Great Council of the United States eliminated the all-white clause in what was called a "turning point for the order".
Rituals
The order itself claims direct descent from the
Sons of Liberty
The Sons of Liberty was a loosely organized, clandestine, sometimes violent, political organization active in the Thirteen American Colonies founded to advance the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. It pl ...
, noting that the Sons participated in the
Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell t ...
dressed as their idea of "Indians". Thus, they continue to dress as "Indians" and use Native American terminology, despite being a non-Native organization.
The group's ritual terminology is derived from language they believe is used by
Native Americans, though it also shows the influence of
Freemasonry
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
. Outsiders are called "
Palefaces", to open a meeting is called "kindling the fire", officers' installations are called "Raising up of Chiefs" and voting is called "twigging". The Masonic influence is seen in the three basic degrees – Adoption, Warrior and Chief. There is also a fourth degree, Beneficiary, for insurance.
Calendar system
Originally, the society used the
Hebrew ''Anno Mundi'' system for
calendar year numbering when dating their documents, rather than AD (note: the Redmen did not use the Common Era reference); however, in CE 1865, a new system was devised and adopted, known as the "Great Sun of Discovery" (GSD). The first year of the system, known as GSD 1, was the year that
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
* lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo
* es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón
* pt, Cristóvão Colombo
* ca, Cristòfor (or )
* la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...
arrived in the Americas, namely AD 1492. In this system, years were known as "great suns" and months were called "moons", each with their own epithet, e.g. "Cold Moon" for January, but the length of these years and months conformed to the conventional
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...
.
Philanthropy and positions
![Improved Order of Red Men donating ambulance to the United States government](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Improved_Order_of_Red_Men_donating_ambulance_to_the_United_States_government.jpg)
The order has historically opposed federal welfare programs, waste in government and Communism. However, there are examples of substantial socialist participation in the organization in pockets of the United States; for example, in southern West Virginia, during the build up to the West Virginia Mine Wars, "the Improved Order of Red Men
as. . . the most comfortable lodge for Socialist miners and other radical workers."
After the Civil war in West Virginia, the Improved Order of Red Men became a fraternal organization of some notoriety for vigilante activity. The Red Men Act, West Virginia's anti conspiracy law, was passed in response to a groundswell of such violence. https://www.hurherald.com/cgi-bin/db_scripts/articles?Action=user_view&db=hurheral_articles&id=7050. Occasionally this vigilante activity included the use of red masks over their faces.https://www.newspapers.com/image/649410726/?clipping_id=63486681&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjY0OTQxMDcyNiwiaWF0IjoxNjY3NTk0NTg5LCJleHAiOjE2Njc2ODA5ODl9.bDJ2s7QxZxvVM6pPddnlIAD1YmvJ39y-T2GyTRMWUOI
The IORM supported the founding of the
Society of American Indians
The Society of American Indians (1911–1923) 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 ...
in 1911 and helped organize the SAI's first two conferences.
Offshoots
Independent Order of Red Men
In 1850, the German-language, "Metamora Tribe of Baltimore", refused to pay a benefit, even though the Great Councils of Maryland and the United States decided that it was legal and proper for them to do so. The group then surrendered its charter and formed a new, German-speaking Independent Order of Red Men. It asked the other German-language groups (or Stamms) to join the new group, but few did so. The Independent Order had a height of 12,000 members, though in the 1880s many Stamms returned to the Improved Order. It still existed in 1896, but according to Albert C. Stevens it gave "no sign of vigorous growth". In the early 1920s,
Arthur Preuss
Arthur Preuss (1871–1934) was a German-American journalist, editor and writer. He is noted for editing the ''Fortnightly Review'' and opposing Freemasonry and eugenics. He was a conservative intellectual whose father, Eduard Friedrich Reinhold P ...
could not get into contact with them, but felt it probably still existed.
Afro-American Order of Red Men
In 1904, another group called the Independent Order of Red Men emerged in Virginia, this time composed entirely of African Americans. When the Improved Order objected to the use of the name, the leader of the group, R. M. Spears, had the charter withdrawn and renamed the group the "Afro-American Order of Red Men and Daughters of
Pocahontas
Pocahontas (, ; born Amonute, known as Matoaka, 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman, belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of ...
". The Virginia IORM still apparently considered an injunction against the new group, but it is unclear how the episode turned out. A Tribe #23 based in
Metompkin, Virginia is attested by the existence of a ribbon badge in the collection of
Theda Skocpol
Theda Skocpol (born May 4, 1947) is an American sociologist and political scientist, who is currently the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University. She is a highly influential figure in both sociology and pol ...
, suggesting that the group had at least 23 local "tribes" in the state. The badge is identical to the ones worn by the IORM, except with the AAORM initials.
Notable members
*
Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. A ...
*
Albert Dutton MacDade
Albert Dutton MacDade (September 23, 1871 – October 4, 1954) was an American politician from Pennsylvania who served as district attorney for Delaware County from 1906 to 1912, as a Republican member of the Pennsylvania State Senate for the ...
*
John Buchanan Robinson
*
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
*
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
*
Alben W. Barkley
Alben William Barkley (; November 24, 1877 – April 30, 1956) was an American lawyer and politician from Kentucky who served in both houses of Congress and as the 35th vice president of the United States from 1949 to 1953 under Presiden ...
Gallery
File:Improved Order of Red Men ribbon.jpg
File:Improved Order of Red Men, Alaska-Yukon-Pacific-Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 1909 (AYP 1305).jpeg
File:Red Men's Hall - Baltimore MD.jpg
File:Red_Men%27s_Hall_signage.jpg
File:Redmen%E2%80%99s_Hall_(San_Pedro).jpg
File:Roslyn,_WA_-_cemeteries_032.jpg
File:Red Men's Wigwam, Index, ca 1910 (PICKETT 173).jpeg
File:Red Men's Lodge in Smithville.jpg
File:Skamokawa, WA - Redmen Hall 01 (19879224145).jpg
Notes and references
Bibliography
*
*
*
External links
Improved Order of Red Men official siteOfficial History of the Improved Order of Redmen 1893Guide to The Great Council of Kentucky of the Improved Order of Red Men record, 1905-1968housed at the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Improved Order Of Red Men
1813 establishments in Pennsylvania
Men's organizations in the United States
Organizations established in 1813
Secret societies in the United States