Editing Order of the Arrow (section)

==Use of Native American cultures==
===Early years===
[[File:BrandonWilsonOABrotherhood.JPG|thumb|150px|1969 Order of the Arrow Brotherhood Card featuring a drawing of a Native American Chief]]
Goodman and Edson, the founders of the Order of the Arrow, opted to portray what they saw as Native American characteristics "as a sign of scouting excellence",<ref name="Deloria">{{Cite book |last=Deloria |first=Philip J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dQFBTKi4aYsC&pg=PA126 |title=Playing Indian |date=1999 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=9780300080674 |location=New Haven |pages=105, 108, 126–7, 165, et al |author-link=Philip J. Deloria |access-date=February 28, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608063410/https://books.google.com/books?id=dQFBTKi4aYsC&pg=PA126 |archive-date=June 8, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> and that the imagery, costuming, titles and imitation rituals "evoked a primitivist exterior Indian Other, vanished from the modern world but still accessible through ritual and its accompanying objects."<ref name=Deloria/> Goodman and Edson established the OA at Treasure Island Scout Reservation as a Scouting honor society "based on a loose interpretation of" ''[[The Song of Hiawatha|Hiawatha]]'' and the novel ''[[The Last of the Mohicans]]''. Inductions of new OA members at Treasure Island involved OA members meeting around bonfires in "ritual Indian costume".<ref name=Deloria/>

===Criticism===
In the later twentieth century and beyond, the Order of the Arrow has been protested and criticized for engaging in [[cultural appropriation]]<ref name="PRice">{{Cite web |title=LETTER: Boy Scouts on campus demonstrate insensitivity to Native American traditions |url=https://statenews.com/article/2015/08/letter-boy-scouts-on-campus-demonstrate-insensitivity-to-native-american-traditions, |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190629163628/https://statenews.com/article/2015/08/letter-boy-scouts-on-campus-demonstrate-insensitivity-to-native-american-traditions, |archive-date=June 29, 2019 |access-date=March 6, 2019 |website=The State News}}</ref><ref name="ArgillanderKryska">{{Cite web |last=Argillander |first=Matthew |date=August 15, 2015 |title=Indigenous Grad Students Protest Boy Scouts |url=https://popularresistance.org/indigenous-grad-students-protest-boy-scouts/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306043924/https://popularresistance.org/indigenous-grad-students-protest-boy-scouts/ |archive-date=March 6, 2019 |access-date=March 4, 2019 |publisher=PopularResistance.org}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{Cite news |last=Kader |first=Charles |date=August 25, 2015 |title=Boy Scouts Playing Indians |work=Indian Country Today |url=https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/opinions/boy-scouts-playing-indians// |url-status=live |access-date=November 2, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170925225652/https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/opinions/boy-scouts-playing-indians/ |archive-date=September 25, 2017}}</ref><ref name=Deloria/> and spreading [[Stereotypes of indigenous peoples of Canada and the United States|stereotypes of, and racism against, Native Americans]].<ref name=Brantmeier/><ref name="Keene">{{Cite web |last=Keene |first=Adrienne |author-link=Adrienne Keene |date=October 1, 2013 |title=The one stop for all your 'Indian costumes are racist' needs! |url=https://nativeappropriations.com/2013/10/the-one-stop-for-all-your-indian-costumes-are-racist-needs.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306042721/https://nativeappropriations.com/2013/10/the-one-stop-for-all-your-indian-costumes-are-racist-needs.html |archive-date=March 6, 2019 |access-date=March 4, 2019 |publisher=[[Native Appropriations]] |quote=No, you can't wear your Boy Scout Order of the Arrow regalia, even if a "real Indian" taught you how to make it. It's not respectful to wear it as a costume, and I’ll argue that it's not respectful for you to wear it ever.}}</ref> Protester concerns include OA's imitation of Native American ceremonies, regalia, and artwork they consider to be offensive.<ref name="Brantmeier">{{Cite news |last=Brantmeier |first=Edward J. |date=August 1, 2002 |title=Scout Gathering Allows Stereotypes of American Indians to be Repeated |work=[[The Herald-Times]] |url=http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2002/08/01/digitalcity.020801_HT_A10_RSZ62534.sto |url-status=live |access-date=July 2, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930052322/http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2002/08/01/digitalcity.020801_HT_A10_RSZ62534.sto |archive-date=September 30, 2011}}{{subscription required}}</ref><ref name="WFHB">{{Cite podcast |url=http://www.wfhb.org/news/daily-local-news-july-14-2009 |title=Daily Local News |website=WFHB Firehouse Broadcasting |publisher=WFHB Community Radio |date=July 14, 2009 |access-date=July 27, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090719004053/http://www.wfhb.org/news/daily-local-news-july-14-2009 |archive-date=July 19, 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="auto" /><ref name=ArgillanderKryska/>

The Chief Seattle Council of Scouting America has written that modern ceremonies conducted by each OA lodge are "influenced by" the history and traditions of the Native American tribes indigenous to the areas the lodge serves,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009 |title=What is the Order of the Arrow? |url=http://www.seattlebsa.org/media/resources/index.php?dir=All/What%20is%20the%20Order%20of%20the%20Arrow/&file=What%20is%20the%20Order%20of%20the%20Arrow.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107055400/http://www.seattlebsa.org/media/resources/index.php?dir=All%2FWhat%20is%20the%20Order%20of%20the%20Arrow%2F&file=What%20is%20the%20Order%20of%20the%20Arrow.pdf |archive-date=November 7, 2017 |access-date=November 2, 2017 |publisher=Chief Seattle Council, Boy Scouts of America |pages=6, 7}}</ref> but use of Native American sacred objects by non-Native groups such as the Boy Scouts has been condemned by Native activists.<ref name=PRice/><ref name=ArgillanderKryska/><ref name="auto" /> Mother of former Scouts Ozheebeegay Ikwe writes, "While native children in residential schools had their culture and language beaten from them, the Boy Scouts were using the language and their version of 'Indian culture' in their OA ceremony."<ref name="LRI">{{Cite web |last=Ikwe |first=Ozheebeegay |title=Boys Scouts Order of the Arrow Guilty of Cultural Appropriation |url=http://lastrealindians.com/boys-scouts-order-of-the-arrow-guilty-of-cultural-appropriation-by-ozheebeegay-ikwe// |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403174520/https://lastrealindians.com/boys-scouts-order-of-the-arrow-guilty-of-cultural-appropriation-by-ozheebeegay-ikwe/ |archive-date=April 3, 2019 |access-date=July 1, 2019 |publisher=Last Real Indians}}</ref> She called the OA's use of headdresses, face paint, eagle feathers, and dancing with a pipe, "downright offensive". After researching the OA and watching their ceremonies she said, "Use of these items by Boy Scouts indicates that there is very little understanding of the Native people they claim to admire and respect."<ref name=LRI/> American anthropologist [[John H. Moore]], an expert on North American Indian ethnology, wrote in an essay published in 1998 that "of all the institutions in American society, the Boy Scouts of America have probably done the most damage in miseducating the public about Native American cultures...[the] Order of the Arrow annually initiates thousands of boys into the martial, romantic version of Indian culture through ceremonies drawn from the writings of Longfellow and James Fenimoore Cooper".<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_EA-UwvN_HUC&pg=PA299 |pages=271–305 |chapter=Truth and Tolerance in Native American Epistemology |title=Studying Native America: Problems and Prospects |editor1-first=Russell |editor1-last=Thornton |publisher=U of Wisconsin P |year=1998 |isbn=9780299160647 |first=John H. |last=Moore |author-link=John H. Moore}}</ref>

David Prochaska, professor in the University of Illinois History Department states the Order of the Arrow is one element that "exemplifies the much larger phenomenon of 'playing Indian'...Boy Scouts, Eagle Scouts, Order of the Arrow. Order of Red Men. Campfire Girls. Woodcraft. Boston Tea Party. 'White Indians' – white New Agers as Native American 'wannabes.' ... To pursue the argument a step further, what is 'playing Indian,' 'playing Native,' 'playing an Other,' all about? It is about play, for one thing, in the sense of dressing up, masquerade, the Bakhtinian carnivalesque...It is also about appropriation, in the sense of taking on, assuming an other's identity, taking another's identity. The implication here is replacing one with another, silencing another, speaking for another."<ref>{{Cite book |last1=King, C. Richard |title=Team Spirits: The Native American Mascots Controversy |last2=Springwood, Charles Fruehling |publisher=U of Nebraska Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0803277984 |pages=166}}</ref>

[[File:OA Call Out at Kia Kima Scout Reservation.jpg|thumb|150px|Arrowmen in Native American attire at the OA Call Out at Kia Kima Scout Reservation in July 2012]]
Simon Mayo-Smith, a journalist and citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation explains the concern of using Native American Headpieces:<br />
“The headdress is reserved for our revered elders who, through their selflessness and leadership, have earned the right to wear one. It’s a spiritual garb, not just cultural; it’s not merely an addition to one’s attire. Wearing one, even an imitation headdress, belittles what our elders have spent a lifetime to earn.”<ref>{{cite news |title=Creating Boy Scout Ceremonies Without Taking Native American Cultural Property |url=https://medium.com/@mishablaise/creating-boy-scout-ceremonies-without-taking-native-american-cultural-property-382ad880cce3 |access-date=March 20, 2024}}</ref>

=== Response ===
On July 23, 2018, the National Order of the Arrow Committee announced that they had received "many complaints surrounding these ceremonies from various American Indian tribes due to the manner in which they are conducted as well as the inconsistent nature in which they are performed."<ref name="Complaints">{{Cite web |date=July 23, 2018 |title=Official Arrow of Light and crossover ceremonies |url=https://oa-bsa.org/article/official-arrow-light-and-crossover-ceremonies |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306044125/https://oa-bsa.org/article/official-arrow-light-and-crossover-ceremonies |archive-date=March 6, 2019 |access-date=March 4, 2019 |publisher=[[Boy Scouts of America]] – Order of the Arrow}}</ref> In 2019, the rules were changed: "Scouts will no longer be allowed to dress up as 'Indians' and incorporate Native American motifs into two of the order's more important ceremonies", according to the [[Voice of America]], which noted also that "in spite of complaints from tribes across the country, Scouts continue to dress in 'Redface,' a term some use to describe the wearing of feathers and warpaint by non-Native Americans."<ref name=hilleary>{{cite news |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/usa_native-americans-boy-scouts-stop-plundering-our-past/6173248.html |title=Native Americans to Boy Scouts: Stop Plundering Our Past |date=August 5, 2019 |first=Cecily |last=Hilleary |publisher=[[Voice of America]] |access-date=June 28, 2023}}</ref> In 2023, amid a backlash against stereotypes of Native Americans, Scouting America held a survey among its members about whether to eliminate or alter the rituals, including those for the OA.<ref name=brewer>{{cite news |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/native-american-appropriation-boy-scouts-rcna78373 |publisher=[[NBC News]] |title=Long accused of Indigenous misappropriation, Boy Scouts ask if it's time to change |date=April 18, 2023 |first=Graham Lee |last=Brewer |access-date=June 28, 2023}}</ref>

On December 23, 2023, the national Order of the Arrow leadership announced: "American Indian Activities (dancing, drumming, and crafts) will not be a part of the program at the 2024 National OA Conference." And, "There is not a single entity that speaks for the 574 federally recognized tribes/[[Indian tribes in the United States|Indian nations]] across the United States and it is impossible for us to gain consensus amongst all the tribes/Indian nations. As a result, national-level American Indian programming is not appropriate."<ref name="NOAC2024">{{Cite web |date=2023-12-22 |title=American Indian Activities in the Order of the Arrow at 2024 NOAC {{!}} Order of the Arrow, Boy Scouts of America |url=https://oa-bsa.org/article/american-indian-activities-order-arrow-2024-noac |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231223003523/https://oa-bsa.org/article/american-indian-activities-order-arrow-2024-noac |archive-date=2023-12-23 |access-date=2023-12-26 |website=oa-bsa.org |language=en}}</ref>

In 2024, the organization announced that issuance of American Indian Vigil Honor names will stop. Native American-based competitions, training and other programs will be discontinued at the section and national level in 2025. The practice will remain open at the local level until January 1, 2026. At that time, "only lodges that have a formal relationship established with a state or federally recognized tribe in their area may engage in American Indian programming." Additional guidance on this item was distributed in December 2024 and additional training will be issued throughout 2025.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-09-24 |title=Policy Update: Changes Regarding American Indian Programming|url=https://oa-scouting.org/article/policy-update-changes-regarding-american-indian-programming |access-date=2024-11-08 |website=oa-bsa.org |language=en}}</ref>