Philip B. Gordon

[2] A staunch advocate for Native American rights, critical of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, he was President of the Society of American Indians and also served on the "Committee of One Hundred" for U.S. president Calvin Coolidge.

Following service at the Lac Courte Oreilles Indian Reservation, Gordon was assigned the pastorate of St. Patrick's Church in Centuria, Wisconsin in 1924, a position he held until his death.

He attended the St. Thomas Military College in St. Paul, Minnesota from 1904 to 1908, following which he attended in sequence the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity, the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C., the American College in Rome, the University of Innsbruck in Austria, again the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity, and St. John's University at Collegeville, Minnesota.

[15] In 1923, Gordon became the last president of the Society of American Indians and was invited to help form the "Advisory Council on Indian Affairs" (later to be known as the "Committee of One Hundred") to provide feedback on Native American policy.

Gradually through assistance of the American press, the generous hearted and justice loving American people are learning something of this present day Indian government humbuggery and deceit practiced by the Indian Office forces.In January 1924, he was retired from his mission "for administrative reasons" and immediately appealed to the Apostolic Delegate to the Holy See in Washington, DC, for assignment to another Indian parish[19] In May 1924, he was instead appointed pastor of the predominantly Irish-American St. Patrick's Church, in Centuria, Wisconsin, where he faced down both anti-Catholicism and the Ku Klux Klan[20] He remained with the parish for the rest of his service.