The importance of the establishment of the Grand Lodge of the Indian Territory, overseeing a membership that included a high participation of Native American members was not lost on its first Grand Master, Granville McPherson. McPherson, not himself Native American (he was a white man who had married a Choctaw woman) nevertheless recognized the number of indigenous people responsible for assisting in the formation of the Grand Lodge. In McPherson's opening address to the Grand Lodge, he said,

"The Grand Lodges of the United States, and of the whole world, will take a deeper interest in us than has ever been manifested for any Grand Lodge within the limits of the Great Republic; from the fact that we are the first Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons ever organized by the aborigines of North America. Many, who are ignorant of the situation of affairs in this country, will look upon us with grave doubts and misgivings; while others, more familiar with us and our advanced stage of civilization will watch us closely, though at the same time feel confident in our ability to sustain ourselves in the proud position we have assumed."
http://nationalheritagemuseum.typepad.com/library_and_archives/granville-mcpherson/