"LaManti Tupso Illahee Chapter Homepage" URL

[Ray Sayah Jr.]

Friends,

I think that I can shed some light on this particular organization.

The Order of the Arrow was formed in 1915 as an honored camper program for
Boy Scouts in Pennsylvania. Boys in the Order were called to service and
fellowship. The Order was formed with a simple ceremony of induction which
contained character names and a legend that were derived from Lenape and
Lenni Lenape tradition. It wasn't long after that the Order had spread and
each lodge began asking native groups in their area for permission to use
songs, costumes and dances as a sideline to the program. Some of the lodges
gained the permission locally. Use of Indian songs, dances, and regalia
varied from area to area.

The Order had become a national organization with lodges in every part of
the country by the fifties. The website that Dave found is for a chapter
(subset) that belongs to the T'kope Kwiskwis Lodge. T'kope kwiskwis covers
the Olympic Peninsula as well as King County. The Lodge was formed in 1954
and uses Chinook Jargon for chapter names and a few other items.

As far as native regalia, songs and dances, each piece of family property
has been given to the lodge for use by a specific family member in good
standing. Lummi traditions, for instance, were passed on by Joseph Hillaire
and reinforced by his daughter (we are told that the Lummi songs and dances
have been fixed for public use so that they are not powerful like the
authentic Lummi dances and songs) Among the Regalia used is button blankets
and dancing kilts, reinforced by the teachings of Bill Holm in the 1960's.

The boys that learn the traditions are intent on causing no offense, harm,
or shame to Indians or Indian sensibilities. I'd say that at least a third
of the boys involved have something near and eighth Indian descendancy. If
you want to discuss some particulars, please send me a private email.

Thanks for listening!

Ray


-----Original Message-----
From: The Chinook List [mailto:CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG]On
Behalf Of Mike Cleven
Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2001 7:31 AM
To: CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: "LaManti Tupso Illahee Chapter Homepage" URL


>From: Dave Robertson <tuktiwawa at NETSCAPE.NET>
>Reply-To: Dave Robertson <tuktiwawa at NETSCAPE.NET>
>To: CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
>Subject: "LaManti Tupso Illahee Chapter Homepage" URL
>Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 00:19:49 -0500
>
>My friends, I admit it, I'm spending an evening idly websurfing!
>
>Here is the URL for some kind of Boy Scout group that may be using Chinook
>Jargon as a secret language...or something:
>
>http://home.earthlink.net/~jeimer/index.htm

Doesn't seem so secret to me, since there's Jargon all over the website.  I
found the following list of chapters:

    Name                    Abbreviation
Ashuk T'salil                    ATS
Hyas Eena                       HEN
Hyiu Chuck                     HYC
LaManti  Tupso Illahee     LTI
Mox Kar-Po                    MKP
Siam Chetwoot               SCT
Sunyakwa                      SUN
Wa Wa Talapus              TAL
Tenas Chakchak             TCC
Yakala                            YAK

as well as the interesting notice that the chapters in question hold
meetings and ceremonies in Native American regalia.  Before anyone jumps off
about "appropriation" it might be worth asking if these chapters have any
significant Native American connections/participation; the chapter
description for LaManti Tupso Illahee chapter of the Order of the Arrow says
"King County and the Olympic Peninsula".

It's also worth noting that, given your many findings tonight, the Jargon
seems far from dead, at least as a local-reference lexicon, which (for
example) the Order of the Arrow seems to have devoted itself to using and
propagating.....

MC
_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.