The text focuses on the question of Indian speech, which found new expression at the beginning of the 20th century with the creation of the Society of American Indians, an association of intellectuals intent on inscribing American Indian speech and agentivity in the rapidly expanding American society. Here, Lionel Larré analyzes the expressions of Indigenous intellectual sovereignty (both as recognition of Amerindian cultural values and of their power to act) of those whom the United States claimed to want to "civilize" and transform according to Euro-American standards. But what these intellectuals of the Progressive period are really talking about is the "indigenization of Native discourse" that is meant to contribute to US society.