Olentangy Longhouse
Indian Princesses - Grades K-4
The purpose of the Olentangy Longhouse 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, grades
kindergarten through fourth grade. The purpose is to develop the
foundation for a life-long relationship. The Olentangy Longhouse provides opportunities for fathers and daughters to spend time together.
Olentangy Longhouse
Trail Mates - Grades 5-8
The purpose of the program is to allow our fathers and daughters to continue to spend quality time together.
Trail Mates may participate in as many of the Longhouse activities that they choose. To differentiate the Trail Mates from the younger, Indian Princesses, Trail Mates will also offer opportunities for at least one high-adventure activity, one community service activity, and be assigned additional camp out responsibilities to allow them to develop their leadership skills.
If you are interested in this program, please contact the Big Chief (bigchiefthirstyowl@yahoo.com) for more details
Olentangy Longhouse 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.
Aims of the Olentangy Longhouse
To be clean in body and
pure in heart.
To be friends always with
my father/daughter.
To love the sacred circle
of my family.
To listen while others
speak.
To love my neighbor as
myself.
To seek and preserve the
beauty of the Great Spirit's work in
forest, field and stream.
The Olentangy Longhouse 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.”
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.
Many have tried to duplicate our success, but the original Indian Princesses is
associated with the YMCA.
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.
The Indian Princess Program
The Upper Arlington Olentangy
Longhouse Indian Princess program is the first and original program in
Upper Arlington. It is largest group in Upper Arlington. The group
consists of girls from Barrington, Tremont, St. Agatha, CSG, Academy, Hilliard, Windermere,
Wickliffe, and Greensview schools. The collective organization is called
the Olentangy Longhouse. The Longhouse is made up of individual tribes
which generally have between fourteen and twenty four fathers and
daughters. Currently, we have six tribes in the Olentangy Longhouse.
The Longhouse is under the
leadership of volunteer parents who hold office for one or more years. Four campouts are planned each year along with many
other great events such as sporting events, pinewood derby racing, ice skating,
family picnics, and holiday celebrations.
The individual tribes are
the building blocks of the Longhouse. 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."