Choate, while portraitists included Elbridge Ayer Burbank, Charles M. Russell and John Hauser. The "Vanishing Race" theme was dramatized at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition of 1898 at Omaha, Nebraska, and the Pan-American Exposition of 1901 in Buffalo, New York. Exposition organizers assembled Wild Westers representing different tribes who portrayed Native Americans as a "vanishing race" at "The Last Great Congress of the Red Man", brought together for the first and last time, apparently to commiserate before they all vanished. During this period, U.S. Government policy focused upon acquiring Indian lands, restricting cultural and religious practices and sending Native American children to boarding schools. Progressives agreed that the situation was serious and that something needed to be done to educate and acculturate Native Americans to white society, but they differed as to education models and speed of assimilation. Reformist progressives, a coalition led by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Native American educators and Christian organizations, promoted rapid assimilation of children through off-reservation Indian boarding schools and immersion in white culture. At Carlisle, Pratt developed a photographic record of the model school for publicity and documentation. The institution and the school were photographed during the school's existence by approximately a dozen professional photographers. The photographs evidenced that the school successfully acclimated Indians to the white man's culture. The first and best known photographer of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School was John Nicolas Choate. "After replacing Indian dress with military uniforms and cutting their hair in Anglo fashion, the Indians' physical appearance was transformed." Before and after "contrast" photos were sent to officials in Washington, charitable donors and to reservations to recruit new students. "Pratt's powerful photographs showing his quick results helped persuade Washington that he was doing vital work. Society of American Indians The Carlisle Indian School was a well-spring for the Society of American Indians, the first Indian rights organization created by and for Indians. The Society was a group of about fifty prominent Native American intelligentsia who exchanged views collectively confronting their tribes and gave birth to Pan-Indianism. The organization was influenced by the Carlisle experience and dedicated to self-determination and preserving Native American culture. From 1911 to 1923, the Society was forefront in the fight for Indian citizenship and the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. Founding members included Dr. Carlos Montezuma, Dr. Charles Eastman, Angel De Cora, Zitkala-Ša and Chauncey Yellow Robe. The Society of American Indians