Thomas L. Sloan
Thomas L. Sloan at Hampton Institute, c.1889
Thomas L. Sloan (1863-1940) was the first Native American lawyer to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court, and with his partner Hiram Chase, formed the first Native American law firm in the United States. Sloan was a founder and leader of the Society of American Indians (1911-1923), the first national American Indian rights organization run by and for American Indians. The Society pioneered twentieth-century Pan-Indianism, the philosophy and movement promoting unity among American Indians regardless of tribal affiliation.