 The
Father and Son Y-Indian Guide Program was developed in a
deliberate way to support the father's vital family role
as teacher, counselor and friend to his son. The program
was initiated by Harold S. Keltner of the St. Louis YMCA
as an integral part of association work. In 1926 he organized
the first tribe in Richmond Heights, Mo., with the help of
his friend, Joe Friday, an Ojibwa Indian, and William H.
Hefelfinger, chief of the first Y-Indian tribe.
Inspired by his experiences with Joe Friday, who was his
guide on fishing and hunting trips to Canada, Harold Keltner
initiated a program of parent-child experiences that now
involves a quarter of a million children and adults annually
in the YMCA.
While Keltner was on a hunting trip in Canada one evening,
Joe Friday said to his colleague as they sat around a blazing
campfire: "The Indian father raises his son. He teaches
his son to hunt, track, fish, walk softly and silently in
the forest, 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
Ojibwa Indian spoke before groups of YMCA boys and dads in
St. Louis, and Keltner discovered that fathers, as well as
boys, had a keen interest in the traditions and ways of the
American Indian. At the same time, being greatly influenced
by the work of Ernest Thompson Seton, great lover of the
outdoors, Harold 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,
feeling for the earth and concern for the family. Thus, the
Y-Indian Guide Program was born.
The rise of the Family YMCA following World War II, the
genuine need for supporting young girls in their personal
growth and the demonstrated success of the father-son program,
in turn nurtured the development of YMCA parent-daughter
groups. The mother-daughter program, now called Y-Maidens,
was established in South Bend, Ind., in 1951; three years
later father-daughter groups, which are now called Y-Princesses,
emerged in the Fresno YMCA of California.
In 1980, the YMCA of the USA recognized the Y-Indian Braves
Program for mothers and sons; thus completing the four programs
and combinations in Y-Indian Guide Programs.
Although some Y-Indian Guide groups had extended their father-son
experiences beyond the first three grades from the beginning,
it was not until 1969 that the Y-Trail Blazers plan was recognized
by the National Long House Executive Committee for sons 9
to 11 years old and their fathers.
Trail Maidens, Trail Mates and Co-Ed Trail Blazers have
also been developed and recognized in YMCAs across the country.
Most recently, the Y-Guide Program has been expanded to include
preschoolers and their parents in the Y-Papoose Program. |
