I won't be on 9/11

[Xpendable]

Unfortunately I have to attend a Chief's meeting as the Nation Elder on Wednesday (to make sure new Nation Chief doesn't forget anything), and so I won't be on. Drop a few warheads on foreheads for me!

[PanzerMeyer]

We’ll see you next week! Pardon my ignorance but which organization are you referring to? I’m curious.

[Xpendable]

It's an offshoot of what used to be called Indian Princesses (for dads and their daughters) or Indian Guides (dad's and their sons) normally associated with the YMCA something like 80 years ago.

My specific organization is Big Waters Federation, and we split off from the YMCA back in the '80's, but our 3 campouts a year are all at YMCA run campgrounds. In order to be more politically correct, we have stopped using American Indian nomenclature. Our tribe Chiefs no longer wear Indian headdresses, we no longer say "How how!" in greetings. We say "Hey Hey"... I will sometimes add a 3rd "Hey" like "Hey HEY hey" in reference to a certain '70's TV show that featured Dwayne, Shirley, Roger, and Rerun. Instead of head dresses we now wear cloaks and sort of have a Game Of Thrones hint. The Nation 2nd in command, which used to be called "Medicine Man", is now called Chief's Hand. Chief's Hand automatically becomes Nation Chief the following year. I was the first Chief's Hand (after we rebranded) and 3d printed a Chief's Hand pendant and put it on my Chief's Hand cloak. It's still being used today.

Anyway, our Federation is divided into different Nations, some are princesses groups and some are guide (boys) groups. The different nations exist to serve different schools of our nearby communities. There are other Federations in the area as well, but those are completely separate organizations run independently of each other.

I am Nation Elder for the mighty "Valley Nation", which means I served as Nation Chief for a year (last year) of our 3 tribe Nation. I had previously been the tribe chief of the Snow Owls. Our other tribes in my nation are the Fire Ferrets and the Gray Wolves. Each tribe is centered primarily around a different elementary school but you can really join any tribe you want to.

We do have a website... https://www.bigwaters.org and we have a Valley Nation blog here with pictures:
https://www.bigwaters.org/valley-nation

While we do go on campouts, this is NOT like boyscout or girl scouts. This is way more laid back and easy going. There are no merit badges to earn, no requirements to attend any of the campouts (you simply sign up and pay for ones you want to go to, typically a month or two before they happen. Camping is more like glamping as it's in cabins. 3 meals a day are provided by camp staff in mess halls. We do have camp fires and the dad's organize a sort of meat fest that we have later at night on Saturday. The dad's covertly drink "fire water" concealed in thermos. Lots of activities for the girls...some campouts even have .22 rifle ranges.

Oh, and the kids can start as early as Kindergarten and can go all the way up until the end of 8th grade. One of my daughters started in 1st grade and just graduated outninbthe spring (she just started high school this fall). The other 2 girls started in Kindergarten and are now in 6th and 7th grade.

We typically have 100-150 people (dad's and princesses) at each campout. It used to be more before the pandemic but it is growing again.

[PanzerMeyer]

Thanks for that great informative post! I learned something today.