The Improved Order of Red Men is a fraternal organization established in North America in 1834.

[3] On December 16, 1773, a group of colonists — all men, and members of the Sons of Liberty — met in Boston to protest the tax on tea imposed by England.

When their protest went unheeded, they disguised themselves as their idea of Mohawk people, proceeded to Boston harbor, and dumped overboard 342 chests of English tea.

Around 1813, a disenchanted group created the philanthropic "Society of Red Men" at historic Fort Mifflin in Philadelphia.

Parallel lines of advancement were offered in the Order of Red Men: a series of military titles and a set of “Indian rankings.”[6] Class and ethnic differences introduced by new immigrants, anti-Masonic persecutions, attacks on fraternal groups based on excessive drinking, and, ultimately, a widespread cholera epidemic in 1832 led to the decline of the organization.

No person shall be entitled to adoption into the Order except a free white male of good moral character and standing, of the full age of twenty-one great suns, who believes in the existence of a Great Spirit, the Creator and Preserver of the Universe, and is possessed of some known reputable means of support.

That year the 106th Great Council of the United States eliminated the all-white clause in what was called a "turning point for the order".

In the present-day, the Improved Order of Red Men is open to people of all ethnic backgrounds.

[2] The group's ritual terminology is derived from language they believe is used by Native Americans, though it also shows the influence of Freemasonry.

[citation needed] However, there are examples of substantial socialist participation in the organization in pockets of the United States; for example, in southern West Virginia, during the build up to the West Virginia Mine Wars, "the Improved Order of Red Men [was] .

"[18] After the Civil war in West Virginia, the Improved Order of Red Men became a fraternal organization of some notoriety for vigilante activity.

The Red Men Act, West Virginia's anti conspiracy law, was passed in response to a groundswell of such violence.

[20] The IORM supported the founding of the Society of American Indians in 1911 and helped organize the SAI's first two conferences.

[21] In 1850, the German-language, "Metamora Tribe of Baltimore", refused to pay a benefit, even though the Great Councils of Maryland and the United States decided that it was legal and proper for them to do so.

[23] In 1904, another group called the Independent Order of Red Men emerged in Virginia, this time composed entirely of African Americans.