Four centuries after Columbus stumbled onto the “New World” and mistakenly named its inhabitants, over fifty representatives of the newly formed American Indian Association met on his birthday in Columbus, Ohio. Their purpose was to define their “common ground” as Indians and visibly demonstrate their ability to participate fully in American society (Hertzberg 59–78). At this conference, one of the delegates and founders of the new association, Doctor Charles A. Eastman, illustrated the contradictions that the conference and many of its delegates faced. On the one hand, Eastman sought to dispel the charge of racial inferiority pervasive in nineteenth-century anthropology by appealing to the assimilationist metaphor of the “melting pot” and the Spencerian logic of cultural evolution, both of which assumed the inevitable demise of Indian culture. On the other hand, however, he recognized who denned the “pot” ― and its homogenizing effect ― and challenged his listeners to preserve their Indian identity and redefine the pot. In this confrontation of Euro-American evolutionary progress and the traditions of his San tee Sioux culture, Eastman sought to bridge their divisions and discover their continuities.