Native American Freemasonry

Associationalism and Performance in America

Joy Porter

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780803225473
• eBook ISBN: 9781496219053
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Native American Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Freemasonry has played a significant role in the history of Native Americans since the colonial era—a role whose extent and meaning are fully explored for the first time in this book. The overarching concern of Native American Freemasonry is with how Masonry met specific social and personal needs of Native Americans, a theme developed across three periods: the revolutionary era, the last third of the nineteenth century, and the years following the First World War. Joy Porter positions Freemasonry within its historical context, examining its social and political impact as a transatlantic phenomenon at the heart of the colonizing process. She then explores its meaning for many key Native leaders, for ethnic groups that sought to make connections through it, and for the bulk of its American membership—the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant middle class. Through research gleaned from archives in New York, Philadelphia, Oklahoma, California, and London, Porter shows how Freemasonry's performance of ritual provided an accessible point of entry to Native Americans and how over time, Freemasonry became a significant avenue for the exchange and co-creation of cultural forms by Indians and non-Indians.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• A Note on Terms
• 1 Approaching Native American Freemasonry, Part One
• 2 Approaching Native American Freemasonry, Part Two
• 3 A History of Freemasonry: From Europe to the United States
• 4 Freemasonry as Ornamentalism: Class, Race, and Social Hierarchy
• 5 The Attractions of Freemasonry to Indians and Others, Part One
• 6 The Attractions of Freemasonry to Indians and Others, Part Two
• 7 Native American Freemasons: The Revolutionary Era
• 8 Native American Freemasons: The “Settlement” of the West and the Civil War Era
• 9 Native American Freemasons: The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
• 10 On Television’s Deathblow to Fraternalism: Understanding Associationalism and the Declining Role of Fraternalism in American Life
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index