The Society of American Indians seeks to bring about better conditions so that the Indian may develop normally as an American people in America. The Society has asserted that it believes that the full response to the duties of life is more important than constant demands for rights; for with the performance of duties, rights will come as a matter of course. The Society thus seeks to urge the Indian to avail himself of every opportunity to learn the ways of “civilized” life, in order that he may become able to compete and cooperate successfully with other men. The members believe _Indian progress depends upon awakening the abilities of every individual Indian to the realization of personal responsibility, for self, for race and for country, and the duty of responding to the call to activity_. When the nation remedies the laws now hindering Indian progress, work, thrift, education and clean morals will then secure for the Indian all the rights that may be given a man and a citizen. The Society is not an organization devoted to complaining. Its aim is to suggest and bring about better conditions wherein the old evils cannot exist. The Society does not seek to continually fight over local matters; it does seek to abolish the cause of the misery and the disability of the race. It strikes at the root of evil, yet it does not ignore the individual case of injustice. Nearly one hundred applications each month come from Indians asking legal information. The annual platform adopted by the Denver Conference and reaffirmed at the Wisconsin University Conference in 1914 demands: First, the passage of the Carter Code Bill, by which a commission will draft a codified law, recommend new legislation and the abolition of laws no longer operative; and the establishment of the definite status of every tribe, band or group of Indians in the United States. The Indian cannot progress until he knows his legal status and how he may advance from a lower to a higher civic status; Second, the Society demands the passage of the amended Stephens Bill, through which the Indians may place their claims directly in the Court of Claims without specific permission of Congress in each instance. Indian progress will be retarded as long as real or fancied claims against the Government are unsettled; Third, the Society asks that the tribal funds be apportioned to each individual’s personal account, so that each Indian may know exactly what the nation holds in trust for him. Individual effort and progress will come with an awakened interest in personal resources and personal property, as opposed to bulk holdings; Fourth, better educational advantages and better sanitary protection are demanded. An ignorant and a sick race cannot be an efficient, useful race. Wisdom, health and thrift will bring to the red man the greater rights he craves.