364 



RED MOUTHS RED STICKS 



[b. a. b. 



care and protection of widows and or- 

 phans, and the cultivation of friendly 

 relations among those who have entered 

 its circle. The democratic influence 

 which attended its birth has caused the 

 idea that all men are equal to remain its 

 fundamental tenet. There were several 

 patriotic societies at the close of the 18th 

 and the commencement of the 19th cen- 

 tury which may have contributed to the 

 rise of the present order. There was or- 

 ganized in Philadelphia, about 1772, a 

 society known as the Sons of Tammany, 

 that may be considered its direct ancestor, 

 the first recorded notice of which is in 

 the Philadelphia Chronicle of May 4, 

 1772: "On Friday, the 1st instant, a num- 

 ber of Americans, Sons of King Tammany, 

 met at the house of Mr James Byrn, to 

 celebrate the memory of that truly noble 

 chieftain whose friendship was most 

 affectionately manifest to the worthy 

 founder and first settlers of this province. 

 After dinner the circulating glass was 

 crowned with wishes, loyal and patriotic, 

 and the day concluded with much cheer- 

 fulness and harmony. It is hoped from 

 this small beginning a society may be 

 formed of great utility to the distressed, 

 as this meeting was more for the purpose 

 of promoting charity and benevolence 

 than mirth and festivity. ' ' Subsequently 

 it was the custom of the society to hold a 

 regular festival every year on May 12. 

 On that day the members walked in pro- 

 cession through the streets of Philadel- 

 phia, with hats decorated with bucks' 

 tails, to a handsome rural place in the 

 direction of Schuylkill r. which they 

 called the "wigwam," where, after a 

 "long talk," according to Indian custom, 

 and after the "pipe of peace" had been 

 smoked, they spent the day in festivity 

 and mirth. The association continued 

 in this form for some }'ears after the peace 

 with Great Britain, when the owner of 

 the "wigwam," who had generously lent 

 it every year in honor of Tammany, hav- 

 ing met with misfortune was compelled 

 to sell it to satisfy his creditors. After 

 the discontinuance of the festive associa- 

 tion other societies of a similar character 

 were formed in Philadelphia and New 

 York, bearing the name Tammany; the 

 only one of these continued to the pres- 

 ent day is the Tammany Society of New 

 York city. See Tammany. 



The present Order of Red Men, like the 

 original society, is a social, fraternal, and 

 benevolent organization commemorating 

 the customs, traditions, and history of 

 the Indians, and is purely American. Its 

 proceedings are secret only in so far as 

 secrecy is expedient and proper. Its 

 organization. proceedin>rs, and mode of 

 initiating members imitate Indian cus- 

 toms, and Indian terms are used to desig- 



nate the officers and in conducting cere- 

 monies. The Order of Red Men has 

 passed through three phases. The first 

 was its existence as originally organized 

 in Philadelphia. After the colonies de- 

 clared for separate government began the 

 second phase, when it is said these socie- 

 ties became intensely popular, and their 

 anniversaries bade fair to excel Inde- 

 pendence day in public esteem. They 

 were thus auspiciously continued until a 

 short time before the second war with 

 Great Britain, when Gen. Dearborn, Sec- 

 retary of War, looking on them as de- 

 moralizing to soldiers, issued orders pro- 

 hibiting them in the ai'my. It is asserted 

 that the third jiliase of the order began 

 in 1813 at Ft Mifflin, on Delaware r., 

 4 m. below Philadelphia, among volun- 

 teer soldiers called Junior Artillerists. 

 An unbroken chain in the existence of 

 the society thus formed continued in 

 Pennsylvania and neighboring states, but 

 without an attempt at concurrent action 

 until 1857. On Oct. 21 of that year a 

 grand demonstration, including a ]iublic 

 parade in full regalia, \\\t\\ banners and 

 other insignia, took jdace at Lancaster, 

 Pa. But the Order of Red Men as now 

 existing seems to have taken its form 

 from the Red Men's Society, Tribe No. 1, 

 of Maryland, organized INIar. 12, 1834, at 

 the house of D. McDonald, in Baltimore. 

 This tribe subsequently assumed supreme 

 authority, which was not challenged by 

 the older tribe in Pennsylvania, and its 

 authority has been acknowledged ever 

 since. In a charter granted by the Mary- 

 land legislature on Mar. 14, 1835, the 

 name was changed to the "Improved 

 Order of Red Men." The organization is 

 now represented in every state and terri- 

 tory in the Union. The total member- 

 ship in 1905 was 382,121, the number of 

 tribes 4,206, and the assets of the organi- 

 zation about $4,000,000. (c. t. ) 



Red Mouths. A band or society of the 

 Crow tribe. — Culbertson in Smithson. 

 Rep. 1850, 144, 1851. 



Red River Assiniboin. An Assiniboin 

 band, estimated in 1829 at 24 tipis (Cones, 

 Henry-Thompson Jour., ii, 522, 1897), 

 living w. of the Otaopabine, w. Canada. 



Red River Chippewa. A former Chip- 

 pewa band in w. Minnesota. — Ind. Aff. 

 Rep., 332, 1873. 



Red Sticks. Among the Creeks and 

 their cousins, the Seminole, all warlike 

 functions, including the declaration of 

 war, the organizing of war parties, and the 

 burning of captives, were in chai-ge of 

 the officers of certain clans, which clans 

 were designated for this reason 'bear- 

 ers of the red' in contradistinction to the 

 'white' or peace clans, in the towns of 

 which all peace treaties were negotiated 

 and where it was forbidden to shed human 



