NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
Use of American Indian Images in the Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls Taking into consideration such organizational movements as the Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls, we may focus our attention on these organizations usage of American Indian images. Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls use American Indian images pretty often in various kinds of activities and specific to the organizations staff. One of the examples of the usage of American Indian Images can be seen at the badges that Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls have. In this research we are going to examine the various kinds of the usage of the images and have a closer look at the origins of the images and how they were integrated with the american youth organisations. One of the books concerning the issue of the American Images was written by the famous author Philip Deloria, called Playing Indian. Philip Deloria makes the extremely disturbing argument that appropriation of Native American customs is embedded in the white American psyche.
Not since the 1970 s bombshell Custer Died for Your Sins by the revered scholar Vine Deloria Jr. , Philips father, has there been a more compelling and startling work on Indian and white relations. Custer shattered longstanding stereotypes about Indians and ripped into federal policies designed to wipe out Native Americans through cultural assimilation. Now Philip Deloria brings his own critique of racial relations to the fore. Though he lacks his fathers literary flair, humor, and caustic tone, Deloria delivers- proving himself to be a serious and relentless researcher. Unlike other Indian Studies authors who offer a voyeuristic glimpse into another culture, Deloria engages white readers in an inclusive discussion on race and identity. That is very rare.
Americans have always looked to the Indians to help define a national identity, he argues. But this quest has proved elusive. What it means to be American is still in question. The reason, he argues, is because white America has never known how to deal with real Native Americans. Many colonists admired Native Americans for their freedom and their connection to the land. Yet American Indians also stood in the way of frontier expansion and land acquisition.
The reality that colonization neither wiped Native Americans off the continent nor fully assimilated them into the Euro-American culture largely explains this identity dilemma. There was, quite simply, no way to conceive an American identity without Indians, writes Deloria. At the same time, there was no way to make a complete identity while they remained. (Deloria 21) This contradiction explains some of the suffering Native Americans have experienced since white people came to this continent. Deloria writes, Indianness was the bedrock for creative American identities, but it was also one of the foundations (slavery and gender relations being two others) for imagining and performing domination and power in America.
Playing Indian is a scrutinizing historical study of Americas bizarre fascination with Indians. Deloria discusses D. H. Lawrence's 1924 work of literary criticism, Studies in Classic American Literature, where Lawrence observed that the American identity was unfinished.
Because Americans insisted on retaining their civilized selves while embracing a sense of savage freedom, Lawrence argued, they were unable to achieve a complete sense of self. It is with this observation in mind that Deloria sets out to deconstruct white America's Indian play, as he calls it. Beginning with the Boston Tea Party, Deloria looks behind the crude Indian dress-up show that the colonists staged. When colonial rebels wearing mock headdresses and war paint dumped crates of tea into Boston Harbor, their Indian play was more than mere theatrics. It was an attempt to create an aboriginal identity apart from the Old World. While history books may describe this event as a patriotic rebellion, Deloria suggests the colonists dressed up like Indians in order to stake an indigenous claim to this land.
White Indians were metaphors come to life, and they allowed colonists to imagine themselves as both British citizens and legitimate Americans protecting aboriginal custom, Deloria writes. As conflict between the Crown and the colonists intensified, Indian images began to represent America as vulnerable, abused, enslaved... Indians appeared on military flags, newspaper mastheads, and numerous handbills. (Deloria 43) In the years after the Revolution, the game changed. Fraternal societies cooper Native American customs in an attempt to discover what it meant to be a new nation. At various halls, these political societies met in secret to initiate their converts. Wearing Indian dress, they revealed to their new recruits the historical mysteries of Indianness and patriotism.
The influence of these fraternal societies extended into the arts and literature, in time molding writers like Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, and Mark Twain. Their writings created a literary voice that was uniquely American. At the turn of the twentieth century, when industrialization began to wedge its way between white Americans and the land, playing Indian helped people to reclaim aboriginal roots. Deloria points out that the newly formed Boy Scouts and the Campfire Girls were appealing to urban, upper-class Americans who feared that the harshness of modernity was eroding their childrens connection to the natural world. Thus the images are being integrated within the researched organizations. But playing Indian at camp (building fires, sleeping in tepees, learning to canoe, and participating in Indian ceremonies) also served to instill and perpetuate patriotism among the youth.
By acting out as Indians, non-Indian young Americans became indigenous. Deloria's findings about how Indian role-playing has changed throughout history are most apparent in his examination of Indian lore hobbyists of the mid-twentieth century. These hobbyists (forerunners of todays New Age seekers of Indian spirituality) sought authenticity through Indian pow wows and other ceremonies. Feeling the alienation of the Cold War years, they were often brazen in their zeal for Indian culture.
Publications like The American Indian Hobbyist were catalogues for replicated authentic materials, Deloria notes. One could order beads, bison skins, cloth, and bones. But, for the most part, an interest in Indianness did not mean an awareness of living Native Americans. Like previous Indian-seekers, the hobbyists were looking only to fill that lingering void in their identities. (Deloria 145) The counterculture used Indianness as part of the free and disruptive spirit of the 1960 s. While the country erupted into a social war, playing Indian seemed to offer meaning.
On the one hand, Indianness -- in the form of a communal tepee or a speech by Chief Seattle -- seemed as open and unfixed as a sign could be. It could mean whatever one wanted it to mean. On the other hand, and almost alone among a shifting vocabulary of images, Indianness could also be a sign of something unchanging, a first principle. A new wave of Indianness occurred during each crucial social crisis throughout American history.
Despite the overwhelming indifference white Americans exhibit toward Indian people, they have played out Indianness in order to affirm their sense of their nation. They would like to believe that the original inhabitants have afforded them a national identity. However, as Deloria persuasively argues, the borrowing of aboriginal dress and ritual, though convenient, was hardly sufficient. By playing Indian, the colonists made an aboriginal proclamation, even while they cherished the Old Worlds manners and customs. But indigenous cultures are at odds with Western values in almost every detail. By striving to merge both worlds, Americans have created an identity plagued with confusion, contradiction, and a dreadful realization of unfulfilled self. (Stephenson) In recent years collectors have come to appreciate objects made by the hundreds of Indian tribes that flourished in North America before the immigrant Europeans forever altered their lives in the course of westward expansion.
Now ten North American museums - nine in the United States and one in Canada - have collaborated to organize a traveling exhibition that explores how North American Indians have been perceived by other peoples and how they have perceived themselves. Entitled Powerful Images: Portrayals of Native America, the exhibition is on view at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, from January 16 to April 5. Future locations will be listed in Calendar. (Stone 24) That an equivalent for the word art does not exist in any Indian language has caused earlier generations to marginalize the Indians artistic output since their art was not created for arts sake. Scholars now believe that there is great value in studying their artistic output in its cultural context, thereby focusing on the practical and spiritual connotations these objects had for their creators and users.
During the nineteenth century non-Indian artists who portrayed Indians and collected Indian objects did so from an ethnographic perspective. In the 1830 s George Catlin (1796 - 1872) traveled to the West with the explicit goal of making highly accurate depictions of Indians. These and his written observations were both published in book form in 1841. In the 1850 s John Mix Stanley followed Catlins lead in the creation of an Indian gallery and added more elaborate genre scenes to the formula. Several of these early artists also collected clothing, ornaments, hides, and other Indian artifacts. Later in the nineteenth century Edward S.
Curtis (1868 - 1953) and others traveled to the West to record Indians in photographs. As more and more travelers visited the West they collected Indian objects as curios or souvenirs. A network of trading posts along the popular tourist routes made these objects readily available. Indian artifacts were eventually transported to retail stores where they found an even wider audience. Artists, in turn, often included these objects in their paintings. Joseph Henry Sharp (1859 - 1953), for example, noted that his landscape paintings were more salable if he included a tepee. (Stone 111) Widespread interest in Indians peaked in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when eastern manufacturers like Tiffany and Company in New York City and Gillinder and Sons in Philadelphia produced silver and glass ornamented with Indian motifs or in shapes derived from Indian ceramics and the like.
The exhibition also examines how Indians have been generalized rather than distinguished by their specific tribe. This approach has ignored the unique tribal customs and beliefs that form the context in which their artifacts were crafted. Works by living Indian artists, which are also included in the exhibition, have prompted the question of whether Indian art can benefit from its newly elevated status in the art market and how artists can eradicate the stereotype that has governed the white mans perception of them for centuries. (Stone 121) Camp Fire Boys and Girls, one of the nations leading youth development organizations, officially launched its new name, Camp Fire USA, its new identity and a nationwide public awareness campaign. The new brand identity follows three years of extensive, nationwide research and analysis.
The research, conducted by Camp Fire and Landor Associates, international brand consultants and designers, helped reveal the tremendous equities of the brand and opportunities for growth. Camp Fire Usa's new brand identity describes the essence of our organization... innovative, progressive and all-inclusive, said Stewart J. Smith, Camp Fire USA National CEO.
The new identity celebrates Camp Fire USA as a national movement and an excitingly different youth development organization. The new logo was adopted to contemporize Camp Fire USA. The logos fluid flame reflects the flexibility of Camp Fire USA programs, which can be customized to meet local needs and interests. The flame represents fire as the center of community.
It is open on all sides to represent Camp Fire Usa's commitment to inclusiveness. (Stone 128) The red and blue colors symbolize citizenship and character. American Indian images play significant role in creating the visual representation of Camp Fire Girls and Boys activities and outfit. They actually create some kind of heritage that comes from long before, which represents the organizations integrity and strong belief in the future development of youths movements. Included in the new identity is the organizations first-ever theme line, Todays kids. Tomorrows leaders, which personifies that Camp Fire USA leverages existing strengths of kids by transforming those strengths into abilities for the future. It also defines a positive contribution to the lives of youth and their families and communities. (Stone 185) To coincide with the introduction of the new identity, Camp Fire USA will launch a nationwide image awareness campaign.
The public service campaign will include television, radio, magazine, newspaper and outdoor PSAs to tell America what Camp Fire USA is about: teaching children responsibility, tolerance, caring and independence within a diverse world. The public service campaign is sincere, using children as spokespeople and featuring common Camp Fire activities in typical settings. The rebounding effort will also be complemented by new uniform apparel, the launch of a new national Web site and new product packaging for the organization's annual Candy Sale. Camp Fire USA serves boys and girls in a whole-family environment, whatever the family's structure. Camp Fire focuses on the development of the whole person using outcome-based, skill-building programs. Camp Fire continually evaluates its programs and their outcomes for youth.
Camp Fire USA is inclusive, welcoming children, youth and adults regardless of race, religion, socioeconomic status, disability, sexual orientation or other aspect of diversity. Its coeducational programs are delivered in schools, in after school settings, in day and resident camps, in churches and in community centers. (Chappel) Camp Fire Girls was founded in 1910 by Charlotte and Luther Gulick, M. D. , as the first nonsectarian organization for girls in the United States. The first local Camp Fire council was formed in Kansas City, Missouri in 1918. In 1975, membership was expanded to include boys. Today, more than 46 percent of Camp Fire participants are male.
Forty two million Americans are Camp Fire alumni. (Chappel) Camp Fire USA is one of the nations leading not-for-profit youth development organizations, serving over 650, 000 participants annually. Camp Fire, with national headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri since 1977, provides all-inclusive, coeducational programs in hundreds of communities across the United States. Camp Fire Usa's mission is to build caring, confident youth and future leaders. By design, Camp Fires programs, including small group experiences, after school programs, camping and environmental education, child care and service learning, build confidence in younger children and provide hands-on, youth-driven leadership experiences for older youth. (Mccalister) To summarize the research provided I have to say that the usage of American Indian images by Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls found its roots back in the beginning of the 20 th Century and is still a common thing to use by these organisations. The Boy Scouts and Camp Fire girls usually get very close together with nature, thus they want to be presented by the images of the people whose area of existance was the sole mother nature. This is actually a pretty good idea to use the images, because this gives to the organisations a clear vision of what they are trying to achieve, which is in the case the prosperity of the nation and healthy nature as well.
We now have the natural resources in a pretty bad shape due to the pollutions that have no end. Finally the organisations such as Boy Scouts and Camp Fire girls trying to make changes to the existing situation and as those people grow, they might even do so. The images help them create their identity and make a perfect connection between the people and nature. Bibliography: Philip J.
Deloria, Playing Indian, Yale University Press, 1996. Allison Eckardt Level, Picturing Indians - myth and reality, New York: Viking Press, 1998. Kelly Stone, Camp Fire USA Launches New Brand Identity and National Image Awareness Campaign, From Eastern Economist, issue 27. 2000. Paul van Buitenen, American Indian Images, Politicos Publishing, 2002. Bumfray F. , Derenzo O. , Camp Fire Life. Stanford: Q-Press, 2000.
Kevin Chappell, Ebony, October 01 1998. Kevin Mccalister, from European Report, July 15 1998. Joe Stephenson, Article American Indian Images Get More Accepted in Journal of Pacific History, December 01 2001.
Free research essays on topics related to: boy scouts, boys and girls, american indian, native americans, nineteenth century
Research essay sample on Boys And Girls Boy Scouts
