About Indian Princesses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The purpose of the Indian Princess Program is to foster understanding and companionship between father and daughter. 

One of the greatest gifts that a father can give a daughter is quality time spent together.  The Indian Princess program is for dads with daughters ages five through twelve.  The purpose is to develop the foundation for a life-long relationship.  Indian Princesses provide opportunities for fathers and daughters to spend time together.

   The Indian Princess Slogan

“Friends Always”

The slogan, "Friends Always", means that father and daughter have a close, enduring relationship in which there is communication, understanding, and companionship. The Indian Princess program encourages such a relationship by providing a means for father and daughter to share enjoyable experiences and have fun together.

  The Indian Princess Pledge

“We, father and daughter, through friendly service to each other, to our family, to this tribe, to our community, seek a world pleasing to the eye of the Great Spirit.”

   Aims of the Indian Princesses

1. To be clean in body and pure in heart.
2. To be friends always with my father/daughter.
3. To love the sacred circle of my family.
4. To listen while others speak.
5. To love my neighbor as myself.
6. To seek and preserve the beauty of the Great Spirit's work in forest, field and stream.

The History of Indian Guides & Princesses

The father and son YMCA Indian Guides program was developed in a deliberate way to support the father’s vital family role as teacher, counselor, and friend to his son.  In 1926 Harold S. Keltner, St. Louis YMCA Director, initiated the program and organized the first tribe in Richmond Heights, Missouri, with the help of Joe Friday, an Ojibway Indian, and William H. Hefelfinger, Chief of the first YMCA Indian Guides tribe.  The program of parent-child experiences that Harold Keltner initiated over 75 years ago now involves a half million children and adults.

Harold Kelter was initially inspired by his experiences with Joe Friday, Harold’s guide on fishing and hunting trips into Canada.  While on a hunting trip, Joe Friday said to his white colleague, as they sat around a blazing campfire, “The Indian father raises his son.  He teaches his son to hunt, to track, to fish, to walk softly and silently in the forest, to know the meaning and purpose of life and all he must know, while the white man allows the mother to raise his son.”  These comments struck home, and Harold Keltner arranged for Joe Friday to work with him at the St. Louis YMCA.

The Ojibway Indian spoke before groups of YMCA boys and dads in St. Louis and Mr. Keltner discovered that fathers and sons shared an interest in the traditions and ways of American Indian.  At the same time, being a great lover of the outdoors, Keltner conceived the idea of a father and son program based upon the strong qualities of American Indian culture and life-dignity, patience, endurance, spirituality, felling for the earth, and concern for the family.  Thus, the YMCA Indian Guides program was born.

The YMCA Indian Princess expansion

The Indian Guides program grew rapidly with the post World War II baby boomer generation and it became clear that there was a need for a similar organization for girls.  The success of the father-son program nurtured the development of parent-daughter groups.  The mother-daughter program, now called Indian Maidens, was established in 1951 and three years later father-daughter Indian Princesses groups began.  Since the early 1960’s, the swift expansion of these programs has continued along with a corresponding group of programs for older children.  Currently, about 900 YMCA’s sponsor over 30,000 YMCA Indian groups in the United States.

   The Indian Princesses Headband 

The central theme of the headband is the sign of the eye of the Great Spirit with the crossed arrows of friendship on the left side and the circled heart of love on the right side.  The symbols for father and daughter are next to the grouped tepees, which indicate happy work in the community, and a single teepee, which denotes happy work in the home.  The trees, water, and grass exhort the wearer to see and preserve the Great Spirit's beauty in forest, field and stream. 

The Green YMCA
 Indian Princesses Program
Iroquois Nation Constitution

The Green YMCA Indian Princesses program is made up of fathers and daughters from Green, Akron, Uniontown, North Canton, Springfield, Mogadore, and other surrounding communities.  The collective organization is called the Iroquois Nation.  The Nation is made up of individual tribes which generally have between twelve and twenty four fathers and daughters.  Currently, we have four tribes in the Iroquois Nation, the Wyandot, Seneca, Shawnee, and Miami.  All of the tribes are named in honor of Indian tribes that originated in and around Ohio.  This includes the Iroquois, one of the largest groups of Indians living in America prior to European colonization. 

The Nation is under the leadership of volunteer parents who hold office for one or more years in the following positions to make up the Council,  Nation Chief, War Chief, Wampum Bearer, Medicine Man, Sachem, Tally Keeper, and Web Spinner.  There is also a Program Director from the YMCA and a chief from each tribe in the Nation.  All Nation business is done at a Longhouse meeting which happens on the first Wednesday of every month.  It is at these meetings that plans are made for the monthly Nation events.  These events are open to all tribes in the Nation and sometimes they are set up for the rest of the family to join in.  Two campouts are planned each year along with many other great events such as sporting events, FADCAR racing, ice skating, family picnics, and a Christmas party, gift exchange, and project.  We are blessed to be affiliated with the Green YMCA Indian Guides which have been a growing and strong organization for many years.

The individual tribes are the building blocks of the Nation.  Each tribe is a self contained unit, which can plan tribal events based on the interests of the members.  As a unit, each tribe should try to meet about once a month at the homes of the tribal members or at a predetermined event location.  The ideas for tribal events are only limited by the imaginations of tribe members.  To share the burden of planning, dads usually rotate responsibilities for hosting a monthly event.

This program is what YOU make of it and will return experiences that will last a lifetime in the hearts and minds of your daughters and YOU!!!

"We, father and daughter, through friendly service to each other, to our family, to this tribe, to our community, seek a world pleasing to the eye of the Great Spirit."