Improved Order of Red Men! Indian Head Tokens! Masonic?

Here's a couple of my favorite Indian Head tokens, maybe we can make a thread of Indian Head tokens. Truly what I'd like to know about is did you have relatives in a The Improved Order of Red Men, Odd Fellows, Masons, Eagles, Shriners or any of the other fraternal organizations, or were/are you a member? I never knew much about these organizations except that when I was working for the State, we held our Pest Control testing in an Odd Fellows hall, must still be there but idk. Oh, and that all these organizations did work to make things better for all, they all operated out of goodness and kindness and did great work for our communities. Are these fraternities still around, I know the Lions Clubs are still going strong in California, and the Shriners as well, anyone know anything? Anyone here collect fraternal organization tokens, medals, badges, please post a pic, I'd like to see what others have come across!

 

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Now that intrigues the heck out of me. Not because I have a fascination with the symbol, but a fascination with history. I always knew it translated back to the ancient Buddhists. Was it also in use with native Americans?

 

The swastika symbol was historically used by many Native American tribes, particularly Hopi and Navajo, and was popularized in the tourist trade circa 1890 until 1940, when tribes signed a declaration banning the symbol due to its new association. It was also incorporated into many buildings in the southwest, for example the Kimo Theater in Albuquerque. It's interesting to read up about it. Oddly people say it originated in India 6000 years ago, but I don't see how it would have spread from there to North America in prehistory.

@fretboard my grandfather and uncle were both members of the Lions Club and I'm pretty sure they were also Freemasons, but neither ever spoke about it. I inherited a couple baubles like this 100% attendance pin. I had never heard of the Improved Order of Red Men but apparently it's a reference to the Boston Tea Party. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improved_Order_of_Red_Men

 

Never seen them before. I wouldn’t mind having them in my collection.

 

Two very nice IORM tokens you posted. An affordable one has never come my way. Both seem to be Whitehead & Hoag pieces which is a plus in my opinion.
Had an uncle that was a member of the local Masons. Most of my local ancestors were members of The Grange / Patrons of Husbandry.

I have a small collection of Masons tokens and this I.O.O.F token.

 

I know a guy who found a "good luck" token while detecting. We thought it was a WW2 token until we researched it.

 

Tangential regarding the widespread use of the symbol, this is a giant statue of Guanyin in Chiang Rai, Thailand. You can go up inside and find a statue with the symbol. I don't know what it means in the Buddhist tradition.

 

There were lots of fraternal groups during the first half of the 20th century.

The "Red Men" was not a Masonic organization it was more like the Elks, Moose, or Odd Fellows.

As for the emblem on the token...



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