JewishScout

I think this all depends on who is doing the ceremony -- and who is viewing it. When I was growing up on the East Coast I never gave a second thought to the Indian themes because I had never met any Native Americans. Later, when I moved to the Midwest, my awareness was raised. There is a difference between actual Native tribes who sponsor units and use their own ceremonies, and non-Indians trying to do such ceremonies. People might not intend to be offensive but sometimes it does happen. In our pack we have a mixed race family who are part Ojibwa and the boys' mother does NOT like white people dressing up as Indians. She sees it as being like people wearing blackface. I wrote a more universal ceremony based on Jacob's Ladder, which in Jewish mysticism, has seven rungs (similar to the seven chakras, for those of you who know yoga.) They are not exactly the Seven Virtues that some packs use, but similar enough so I was able to combine the two traditions. The arrows we award in our ceremony represent being straight and true -- a good straight arrow hits the target, etc. This is universal enough that everyone can relate to it. I just posted the whole ceremony on my blog at JewishThoreau.com. Feel free to use and/or adapt it. There are alternative Arrow ceremonies out there, if you search the Web you'll find a lot of different ones written by various packs, some serious and some, in my opinion, bordering on the ridiculous. But if it works for them, then why not?. I think the important thing is for it to be meaningful for the boys and the families who are participating. This is something that can only really be decided by your own pack committee.