In a message dated 97-10-08 09:07:45 EDT, you write:

<< Is this International Order of Redmen at all related to Lewis Henry
Morgan's
 Grand Order of Iroquois?  Is it the of the same influences? >>

I checked out this group when I found an old photograph of my Grandfather on
a softball team associated with the Red Men. (Tompkins County, NY about 1920)
and I found out that they are still in existence. I was wondering just what
Grandpa was up  to <GRIN>. Their address is:

National Office of The Great Council of the United States Improved Order of
Red Men
Post Office Box 683
Waco, Texas 76703

According to a pamphlet I got they started out as one of the secret patriotic
societies  founded before the American Revolution--to promote liberty and
defy the tyranny of the English Crown--and continued meeting after the
Revolution. They claim to have evolved from the Sons of Liberty. In 1813 they
officially organized the Society of Red Men at Fort Mifflin, Pa. In
 Baltimore, MD 1847 they formed the Grand Council of the United States. They
patterned themselves after the Iroquois Nation "like the Masons have
patterned themselves after the ancient masonic craftsmen." Their pamphlet
says they are "a patriotic fraternity chartered by Congress".

I have seen a listing of several "tribes" that were meeting in Tioga Co., NY
in the 1887-1888 Tioga Co., Directory. Some of them called their meetings
"council fires".

Brenda Whelply