1926 & 1927 - The War Paint Club is established to fight for rights (and roles) of Hollywood actors

1927, September 29 - Indians Making Place for Selves in Films, Ousting Painted Extras 

"Hollywood - For years it has been conceded among motion-picture directors that to let a few dozen

Indians gallop across the screen bent on massacre was about as sure a way as any to bring the
          Yet Indians have scarcely begun to work in pictures here.As late as a year ago there were not half a dozen Indian extras registered in Hollywood. Practically all the so-called redskins were Mexican laborers recruited off the streets of Los Angeles.                
          At rare intervals producers of big features made whole sequences of a picture on or near an Indian reservation in order to get enough full-blooded Indians for big scenes. For Indian extras, however, it was always easier to hire substitutes off the street and put them into Indian paint and costumes.      

1927, Sep 29  Miami Daily News Record 

          Many players earning big money today can recall when they filled in as "Indians." Even Mary Pickford had her share of wearing dark paint and blankets. 
          Here and there a real Indian gradually became known to casting directors and was regularly used. Eagle Wing, a Klamath, has worked in pictures for about 15 years, and Dove Eye Dark Cloud, widow of the late Chief  Dark Cloud, has portrayed many Indian roles. There also are several stars and successful directors in whose veins run Indian blood, notably Blue Mountain, better known to film fans as Monte Blue; and Edwin Carewe, whose Chickasaw name is "Chuila," meaning Fox.

          But for White-Bird and the organization of the War-Paint Club, Indian affairs in Hollywood might have remained on this plane. When she came here two years ago with her husband, Chief Yowlache, Indian baritone, she marveled that most of the Indians being used in pictures were imitation Indians. She was told the reason studios used so few Indians was that Indians were [too] hard to find in Hollywood. She wouldn't believe it, until she was asked to fill an order for six real Indians. When she tried to recruit them she found practically none had telephones and many had moved to other addresses. So the half dozen Indians were delivered on the set next day only after a strenuous hunt.
          The discovery set White-Bird to work in earnest. She built up a list of active telephone numbers and a "scout" system for reaching those who had no telephones. Gradually the home of White-Bird and Yowlache became a sort of central casting bureau for Indians and later there was organized the War Paint Club, which looks after the interests of Indians in films and furnishes Indian types and extras.
          Now as many as 150 Indians can be delivered on a set at short notice, and the list is being [argumented] by Indians migrating to Hollywood from various states.
         As compared with other "foreigners," the American Indian has been slow to invade Hollywood, but in another year or two there may be as many Indians in pictures as today there are Russians, Germans, Frenchmen or Hungarians."  - Source 1927, September 29. Miami Daily News Record 
     
The War Paint Club was formed the year before, in 1926, to protect rights of Native American actors and to establish a talent agency, of sorts, that would pool together "real Indians" who would be casts as authentic American Indian actors, rather than Mexicans, Italians or whites dressed in red face. 

According to the article at right, "The club is governed by a council of twelve chiefs representing different tribes, ranging in localities, from New York to Florida and from Canada to Mexico.."

One of their goals was to "keep the Indian character from defamation or ridicule... as often is the case when white men, who don't know what it's all about, are dressed up to represent Indians." 

The War Paint Club gave away to the IAA - the Indian Actors Association - in 1936,  founded by Luther Standing Bear (Oglala Lakota.)

1926, Nov 7 The Los Angeles Times 

1927, Sep 29  Miami Daily News Record