At these conferences are assembled men and women from the United States, Europe and Canada interested in Indian affairs, the Philippines, etc. The conference consists of addresses by persons familiar with Indian topics, which are followed by general discussion. For two or three years the conference seemed to its friends to be somewhat dominated by the Indian Office, but a few years ago it became again a real open parliament. Conflicting views are often expressed, and both the dark and the bright sides of our Indian picture are presented. The conference last year was devoted almost exclusively to a discussion of Oklahoma affairs. An annual report is published and circulated throughout the world. The meetings have been productive of a great deal of good. Those who attend are invited as the personal guests of Mr. and Mrs. Smiley and enjoy the privileges of their magnificent estate in the heart of the Catskills, while attending the conference. The Society of American Indians was organized at Ohio State University in 1911. It came into being in response to a feeling on the part of the educated Indians of the country that the “Indian problem” could best be solved through an awakening of the race itself, through its leaders, in cooperation with white friends. The organization of the society is due to the efforts of Prof. F. A. McKenzie of Ohio State University. The founders of the Society were such men and women as Dr. Charles A. Eastman (Sioux), Dr. Carlos Montezuma (Apache), Rev. Sherman Coolidge (Arapaho), Laura Cornelius (Oneida), Henry Standing Bear (Sioux), Charles E. Dagenett (Peoria), Rosa B. LaFlesche (Chippewa), Arthur C. Parker (Seneca), Thomas L. Sloan (Omaha), Emma D. Goulette (Potawatomie), Marie L. Baldwin (Chippewa), Henry Roe-Cloud (Winnebago), and Hiram Chase (Omaha). The high stand taken by the Society and its elimination of all selfish motives led to an unqualified endorsement of its objects by the most earnest friends of the Indian in this country and in Europe. The Society though only four years old has a membership of about 1500. Hundreds of the most progressive Indians in the country are members and almost all trades and professions are represented. More than 500 citizens of the white race, including both men and women, are associate members of the Society. Most of them have for years demonstrated their earnest and unselfish interest in the welfare of the Indian and have now united their interests with the Indian. The Society is not connected with any other organization. It is governed entirely by its own membership and has no connection with the Indian Bureau or the Government. Indians and their friends of every shade of opinion are members.