Camp Totem Poles, Tepees, And Other Misrepresentations

[RememberSchiff]

PC or just grumpy, I find myself getting annoyed that my scouts go to summer camp and come back thinking the Northeast native Americans or all native Americans built totem poles and lived in tepees. And why not, right at camp is a totem pole and a tepee where a dugout canoe and wetu should be.

 

 

[qwazse]

I vote for "just grumpy".

 

This is where an SM's responsibility to educate really has to kick in. As modern Americans, we seek to honor the greatness of the land's occupants from coast to coast ... not just those who may have been on the dirt we currently stand. That's why a day hike to the museum or historical society should be part of the scouting experience.

[packsaddle]

Crotchety, maybe bordering on curmudgeonly. I should know...I'm there already.

[DuctTape]

In Danieal Beards, shelters shacks and shanties he provided multiple native (and european) designs specific to the different areas. Some of these were included in older bsa publications. Boys love to make forts in the woods, what a fantastic patrol activity either as a day trip or on a campout to make a shelter based on the natives designs of the area. Outdoors and fun...learning to do things fir themselves. thats is what scouting is all about.

[Gone]

@@RememberSchiff is spot on. We built a ceremonial team based on our local Indian tribe's customs, dress, etc. The local lodge is based on relocated Indians from the East, yet they say we are incorrect.

 

Local lodges should do the research and be true to the local tribes to the best degree possible.

[CalicoPenn]

HC (historically correct) not PC, which leads to grumpiness. 

 

We can't blame the scout camps or scouting for the historical inaccuracies - we need to look to the 1800's for that.  While some of the blame can be laid at the feet of Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West shows bringing folks on the east coast their first real life encounters with plains indians, it's not all him either.  Some of the blame might be laid at good ol' Abe Lincoln's feet, since his Transcontinental Railroad (pushed for and started under the Lincoln administration) helped open the west to tourism.  Some of the blame has to go to the reporters of the time that traveled around sending dispatches to their home offices from the west, with their vivid descriptions of the Indians of the plains, and of the illustrators that did the same thing.

 

That said, Scouting has not done a very good job of maintaining historical accuracy.  Look at pictures of OA ceremonies - the vast majority show the Chiefs dressed in Plains Indian, and specifically Sioux-style, warbonnets.  The legend suggests the Order is closely tied to the Lenape, who never wore these headdresses, yet, with the exception of a few Lodges, most wear Sioux warbonnets.

 

Can we do better?  Maybe - but it's going to be hard to reverse the images of teepees, totem poles and plains warbonnets that have been ingrained through media and tourism for over 150 years.  Anyone who followed the fight over University of Illinois's Chief Illiniwek portrayal, in his Sioux-style warbonnet, looking like almost every Allowat Sakima out there, goose stepping around the field with his arms crossed in front of his chest, can tell you how hard it is to convince people that historically inaccurate portrayals are not doing a service to the Native Americans you are claiming you're honoring.  The Illini (and the University teams are known as the Fighting Illini) controlled most of the territory we now know as Illinois - and they did not wear warbonnets.

 

The fact is that the US is just bad at getting history right - talk to someone about the fur trade in the Northwest Territories and they'll more often than not be thinking of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Washington and not Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota which is where people like Astor really made their wealth from furtrapping.  

[skeptic]

While it would only nudge the issue in the right direction, Indian Lore needs to be almost completely rewritten.  As part of that, there should be at least one major requirement, maybe more, that specifically focus on "local" tribes from the past.  If there are transported tribes, they too should be included, but historically accurately.  Since the merit badge is common at camps nation wide, it is even more important that local Native groups be contacted, and possibly even included in summer programs.  

 

While our lodge surely can do much better, we do have local Chumash involvement.  It is highly unlikely we can ever expect complete local focus, especially in dress and ceremonial elements, when a large percentage are not very exciting or "pretty".  Even the preferred tribal depictions are inaccurate though, as the plains tribes had the horse, which tends to be cast so importantly, reintroduced to them after centuries without it.  

 

Like anything though, we can do better and work to do so, or we can complain and stop there.

[Eagle94-A1]

National OA is promoting lodges to look at local nations, whether current or historical, and to go local. Some lodges have been doing it for years,others are now starting to. I'm fortunate in that my home lodge growing up, and local lodge currently, have good relations with local Nations, and are working to make it more local specific.

 

But from first hand experiencing it is a tough sell. Research can be a pain, but the internet has definitely made it a heck of a lot easier to access drawings and descriptions from the colonial period, and photos from Western Expansion period.  I remember spending way to much time in archives back in the day. But there are times when you  do need to go to them. So research is one reason for making a switch to local Native American nations is a tough sell.

 

Another reason for the tough sell to convert is what I call "Hollywood factor." Even today there are stereotypes on what a native American should look like based upon the old westerns. heck even non-Plains Native Americans got into it. I have postcards date the 1950s, 60s, and 70s from such places a Cherokee NC and upper NY state where the Cherokee or Iroquois are dressed up as Plains Indians. I know my chapter chief wants to spend our regalia budget on going local, but we do not know how tough a sell we will be having at the next chapter meeting.

 

A third reason for the tough sell is making authentic local regalia can not only be expensive, but time consuming, It's easier and cheaper to repair or replace individual regalia items than to essentially start all over. I spent over 3 years beginning through the process and it was never finished. Part of it was lack of time and money. Part of it was lack of interest. and part of it was the fact that some people had a stereotypical view, and didn't want to change.

 

A fourth reason I've encountered is resistance form the local nations. As already mentioned, while some OA members and lodges do it correctly. unfortunately more do it incorrectly. Heck my lodge growing up had to disband the dance team at one point because they were doing so much stupid stuff, there were complaints from the local nation. We spent a lot of time developing a relationship with them, and took their concerns seriously. it took about 5 or 6 years to get a team restarted, and the Houma did have some reservations about helping us. It worked out very well long term.

[Stosh]

I'm not much for PCism, but if one is worried about the stereotype of the historical people of America, why not ask them.  If they give some guidance and advice on how to do it proper then follow that to the letter.  If they say they would prefer that the interpretation be dropped because it is demeaning, then drop it and find someone else's sandbox to play in.  

 

America has plenty of other cultural resources other than  than the aboriginal culture to focus on.

[RememberSchiff]

Crotchety, maybe bordering on curmudgeonly. I should know...I'm there already.

Hah, I will redouble my efforts, hopefully I do not keep you waiting there alone for long.

 

Seems to this CIT (curmudgeon-in-training) that the effort to do it HC (thank you) would have been the same, so why not. This is like opening a baseball camp in New England with a New York Yankees motif, the RED SOX Nation would not have it. Anyway, scouts burning and digging out log canoe could be a interesting summer camp project.

 

OA, Indian Lore MB, history texts, Washington Redskins, and Hollywood (Adam Sandler ) yeah all that too.

 

My $0.01 for being crotchety

[perdidochas]

@@RememberSchiff is spot on. We built a ceremonial team based on our local Indian tribe's customs, dress, etc. The local lodge is based on relocated Indians from the East, yet they say we are incorrect.

 

Local lodges should do the research and be true to the local tribes to the best degree possible.

My sons' OA ceremony group has two teams--the main one chose to do Sioux regalia(here in NW FL), and the other chose local Seminole inspired regalia.  That said, they don't pretend that the Sioux regalia is local. 

[Gone]

My sons' OA ceremony group has two teams--the main one chose to do Sioux regalia(here in NW FL), and the other chose local Seminole inspired regalia.  That said, they don't pretend that the Sioux regalia is local. 

 

Nice to hear.

 

I wish more lodges went local. I think it does them proud to show interest in such things. I get that some tribes might be more interesting than others (regalia-wise), but I would think the lodge would want to be as historically accurate as possible. But I am sure the kids saw cool Buffalo head or massive war bonnet and went that route. Who could blame them?

[Eagle94-A1]

My sons' OA ceremony group has two teams--the main one chose to do Sioux regalia(here in NW FL), and the other chose local Seminole inspired regalia.  That said, they don't pretend that the Sioux regalia is local. 

 

You reminded me of a lodge I ran into at the 1994 NOAC.  The Lodge straddled the GA-FL border and they went local. Depending upon which side of the border the ceremonialist lived on, he was either Creek (GA) or Seminole (FL) 

[Rick_in_CA]

Some chapters find it difficult to "go local". The local culture of my area are the Ohlone people. Unfortunately the Spanish Mission system did a real number on them, and not much of their culture survives. I understand the local OA dance teams don't do Ohlone dances as the few that are known are part of religious ceremonies, so they are off limits (dance teams don't do ceremonies, just social dances). So the local OA do Sioux dances and regalia.

 

I'm told the lack of social dances surviving is a problem with many west coast native cultures, which is why most OA dance team out here do Sioux and other plains cultural dances and regalia. I wonder if that is true? Between the missions and the gold rush the native cultures in California basically experienced a cultural (and physical) holocaust. But the native groups of Oregon and Washington didn't suffer as much (not that their experiences were a picnic). So a lot of their culture survived. Is it that they didn't do social dance? I find that hard to fathom, but what do I know?

Edited May 5, 2015 by Rick_in_CA

[RememberSchiff]

Maybe OA should first honor its own Native American roots, the Lenni-Lenape*, and then reach out to local tribes? 

 

* Treasure Island was in the land of the Lenni Lenape.

 

My $0.02

Edited May 5, 2015 by RememberSchiff