We’re planning to do the BSA Indian Lore merit badge in one afternoon with Scooter & Aleks next month and your boy(s) is invited to join us if they are interested. Please let us know if your son is coming by 02/15/14 so we can make arrangements with the Ohio History Center and have all of the materials ready.

Here’s our plan:

Sunday, March 2 • Noon – 5:30 pm
Cost: About $15 for Ohio History Center admission and speaker (working on a group rate with them, could be less, but this is worst case cost)
Meet at: 175 Kenbrook Drive (Dave & Jodi’s, well send a map as it is hard to find the first time)
Wear: Full Uniform (and eat lunch before you get here)
One Prerequisite: Details below

We’ll be heading down to the Ohio History Center to view Indian artifacts (we’re trying to arrange an Ohio Indian speaker there as well). Back at our house, we’ll make models of Indian longhouses, prepare three Indian dishes and finish up by reviewing the prerequisite that each boy chose to complete. We’ll also get to see a tomahawk head that was found in the lot next door to us!

One Prerequisite:

Have your boy research ONE of the following and bring to our meeting (hopefully they will chose several different ones so that it is more interesting to share).

a. Write or briefly describe how life would have been different for the European settlers if there had been no native Americans to meet them when they came to this continent.

b. Sing two songs in an Indian language. Explain their meaning.

c. Learn in an Indian language at least 25 common terms and their meanings.

d. Show 25 signs in Indian sign language. Include those that will help you ask for water, for food, and where the path or road leads.

e. Learn in English (or the language you commonly speak at home or in the troop) an Indian story of at least 250 words, or any number of shorter ones adding up to 300 words. Tell the story or stories at a Scout meeting or campfire.

f. Write or tell about eight things adopted by others from American Indians.

g. Learn 25 Indian place names. Tell their origins and meanings.

h. Name five well-known American Indian leaders, either from the past or people of today. Give their tribes or nations. Describe what they did or do now that makes them notable.

i. Learn about the Iroquois Confederacy, including how and why it was formed. Tell about its governing system. Describe some of the similarities and differences between the governments of the United States and of the Six Nations (the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois Confederacy).

The boys will also need to get a blue card with Jodi Barnhill as their advisor before we start (and bring it with them).