Fraternal group (Other Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only J. Homer Thiel. Jeremy Pye.

The Improved Order of Red Men opened a lodge in Tucson, Arizona Territory in 1898. Here, members of the fraternal group held meetings featuring songs and speeches, and marched in parades dressed in Native American attire. The lodge purchased a cemetery plot and, from 1898 to 1908, 20 graves were dug. Archaeological excavation of the eastern cluster of graves yielded nine burials, two complete and seven exhumed in 1915. Each grave contained human remains, clothing, coffins, and outer boxes....