Typical Activities

The program includes a variety father and daughter activities, Tribal activities, and Nation activities. The Seminole Nation follows a fairly regular schedule, and include some local, and some overnight activities:

• The two key events of the year are the Spring and Fall Nation Camp-outs in April and October of each year. These are father and daughter only events are packed with activities, held at full-featured camps with cabins, tenting , lakes, dining and activity areas. The Fall Camp-out includes horseback riding; the spring camp-out includes our version of the Pinewood derby.
• The Sunshine State Pow-Wow is typically in March of each year; entire families are invited to gather with Tribes from Adventure Guide, Indian Guide and Princess programs across Florida state and join in war games, storytelling, dancing, and other contests.
• In November, families are invited to join our annual camping, canoeing and shark tooth fossil hunting expedition on Peace River. This wilderness tent camping weekend is a favorite of our Princess and Indian Guides programs.
• In May, often families are invited to John Pennicamp State Park in Key Largo to sail and snorkel and see the underwater world around us. Weather permitting this event has taken place for many years

• In September we often have a Mystery Bus Ride. To Where? Can't tell you! That's why its a mystery.
• In December we hold our Dad and Daughter Dance Gala to celebrate the end of the year and rotation of the Nation Officers.
• Other Nation activities have included the Westgate River Ranch Rodeo, a private Overnight Museum of Science and Discovery Adventure, the Miami Metrozoo, Glass-Bottom boat excursions along the coast, overnight camping at Billie Swamp Safari on the Big Cypress Seminole Reservation, trips to Orlando, local Beaches, Sporting events and more. Each year our Nation Officers and Tribes cook up new adventures for their daughters.

Typical Tribal Activities Include:

Home Meetings, which generally include a craft activity, and may also include planning for Tribal Outing Events, Nation Events or community activities. These meetings are designed to be 1 hour long and will typically rotate around each dad's home or place that they arrange.

Outing Meetings, can include trips to local or state parks, an expedition to the Everglades, a canoe trip on the Loxahatchee River, a trip to Jupiter Lighthouse and Blowing Rocks Preserve, overnight stays at Spanish River Park or The Miami Seaquarium, Bob William's Cracker Creek Canoeing, behind-the scenes tour at local fire and police stations or local businesses, participation in community service activities. Each tribe can create their own outing.

Time Commitment

The success of the program hinges on the continued commitment of fathers to expend time and effort. Once again this is a parent AND child activity. It is an ongoing commitment to set aside time for Tribe and Nation events, as well as projects you and your daughter have together.

As with any group or program, the more more you put in to it as a participant, the more you get out of it. For those willing to make a bigger commitment, volunteer positions as a Tribal Chief or Medicine Man, a Nation Longhouse Chief, or Nation Officer can be very rewarding.

Goals and History of the Program

"An Indian Princess is a girl with a Dad like mine"

The Indian Princess program is designed for Dads and Daughters, growing together, spiritually and mentally. Originally sponsored by the YMCA, it is a spin-off of the Indian Guides program established in the 1920's for for Dads and Sons. The purpose of the Indian Princesses Program is to foster the understanding and companionship of father and daughter.

The program is open to girls, Kindergarten through 6th grade (and then some), and their Dads. The program is dedicated to providing excellent opportunities for people to achieve their greatest and most satisfying potential as caring, responsible human beings. Y-Indian Guide Programs (Guides, Princesses, Maidens, and Braves) help fulfill this mission by:

• Fostering companionship and understanding between parent and child, and setting a foundation for positive, lifelong relationships
• Building a sense of self-esteem and personal worth.
• Expand awareness of spirit, mind and body.
• Provide the framework to meet a mutual need of spending enjoyable, constructive quality time together.
• Emphasize the vital role that parents play in the growth and development of their children.
• Offer an important and unique opportunity to develop and enjoy volunteer leadership skills.

The Pledge

We, father and daughter,
Through friendly service to each other,
To our family, to our tribe, to our community,
Seek a world pleasing to the eye of the Great Spirit.

Our Slogans

History of the Program

The Indian Guides program was established in 1926 as a way to ensure that hard-working fathers stayed involved in their sons lives. The program was developed by Harold Keltner of the Saint Louis, Missouri YMCA, with the help of, and based on the example of his friend Joe Friday, an Ojibway Indian. According to Joe Friday, "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."

Keltner designed the 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. The Indian Maidens, a sister organization for mothers and their daughters was established in South Bend, Indiana in 1951. The Indian Princess organization for fathers and daughters got its start at the Fresno, California YMCA in 1954. Finally, in 1980, the US national YMCA recognized the need for an Indian Braves organization for Mothers and Sons.

Use of the Native American Theme
(a South Florida Editorial)

There is some controversy over the use of traditional Native American names and themes in the program. Below are some brief thoughts on the subject. In addition, here is an article reprinted from the Los Angeles Times.Participants in the Indian Princess program are encouraged to find positive and respectful ways of using the Native American theme in their activities. While a tribe may participate in a variety of events over the course of a year, the Native American theme has been an instrumental part of the program for three-quarters of a century.That's saying quite a bit considering the changes that occurred in American society over that time. In 1926 when the Y programs began, the world was a very different place. Yet the program, which is entirely a volunteer organization, has continued to win the interest and involvement of parent and child alike, regardless of the world of distractions that surround us, and has remained largely true to its original intent to the present day.

In addition to selecting tribal and individual names, program activities often include Native American crafts, artwork and storytelling. Our semi-annual Nation Camp-outs include contests for Native American costume. Parents and child (and friends and grandparents) are often involved in researching and creating traditional costumes. The most recent winner wore a Lakota costume whose detail would have rivaled more than one museum display we've seen. Once a year we attend the Sunshine State Pow-Wow (held at different locations each year). Included in the activities are visiting native American storytellers and dance groups, along with various classes and workshops on crafts, tribal languages, and other topics. A father and daughter activity, in this case, becomes a four-day long family expedition to join literally thousands of others from Guide and Princess Nations across the state.In South Florida we are fortunate to be close to two tribes, including our namesake Seminole Tribe and the Miccosukee Tribe. Both hold annual Pow-Wows within easy easy travel distance (in Hollywood and on the Tamiami trail, respectively) and both tribes have a variety of cultural events at their respective museums, most notably at the A-Tha-Thi-Ki museum on the Seminole reservation.

We also often attend, as a tribes or as a nation, overnight events on the Big Cypress Reservation, including reenactments from the Seminole wars, rodeos, and late night story telling.In our own tribe we were doubly fortunate to include among our members a daughter whose mother was a Choctaw, originally from Alabama. Her comments on the program and participation were valuable in increasing our exposure to, and appreciation of Native American cultures and sensibilities.Most of us are all too aware of the ways in which entities ranging from Hollywood to Professional and Collegiate sports organizations have appropriated and abused Native American names, faiths, and culture. Most of these have clearly been self serving and disrespectful. I wouldn't dream of suggesting otherwise. On the other hand, it does not have to be that way.

My own children have slept many nights in Seminole chickees in the Everglades, eaten Seminole meals and danced in Seminole and Tale ka dances. They have watched fancy dancers and hoop dancers and jingle dancers, eaten chicken roast over a fire pit by starlight with Jimmy Sawgrass, listened to tellers of stories and folklore at A-Tha-Thi-Ki, and learned which words and actions are respectful and which are not.I am grateful to have had the chance to expose my children to these things, and I wonder, if it had not been for this program, what their understanding of Native Americans might have been based on. A John Wayne movie perhaps? A casino advertisement?

We are not corporations or movie producers or baseball team owners. We are simply parents trying to raise their children. And as a parent, I am proud to say that the only cowboys my children have ever known, have been Indians.