The society of American Indians: Too many chiefs and not enough Indians

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries most Indian reform groups were church-centered and were run by whites who had long been involved in the formulation of Indian policy. These people, whom one historian has labeled old campaigners, thought of themselves as the Friends of the Indian, and their individual interests focused on specific facets of national Indian policy. Founded in 1879, the Boston Indian Citizenship Committee sought political advancement for Indians. In 1882, the Indian Rights Association emerged to protect Indians1 legal rights. A year later, the Women’s National Indian Association was founded to build missions and promote prohibition