4-H Summer Traditions Under Fire, Deemed 'Offensive' to Native Americans 

 

Tuesday, April 09, 2002

    

 

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.  - Treasured American Indian customs at West Virginia's 4-H summer camps have gotten a year reprieve on the road to extinction - at least while the state organizers and the federal government figure out which of them they consider offensive.

 

The West Virginia University Extension Service, which oversees 4-H in West Virginia, had announced March 22 that American Indian traditions would no longer be used in summer camps after a group of national 4-H leaders said they were offensive to Native Americans and trivialized their customs.

 

But now most of the traditions will stay in place for at least a year while the WVU Extension Service waits to hear just what is wrong with them from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the national 4-H program. The only ones immediately on hold are the face painting and "spirit sticks."

 

"We acted on what we thought was clear direction from a federal authority," WVU Extension Service Director Larry Cote said. "We don't know how to respond anymore, frankly."

 

In the meantime, Cote said, the school will take "at least a year" to consult with various groups, including Native Americans, to determine what about the 4-H programs ought to stay and what, if anything, ought to go.

 

Cote has named two Extension employees, Sue Jones of Grantsville and Dave Snively of Morgantown, to head a yearlong study of those rituals this summer. Both will work with county leaders, American Indian groups and others to identify practices that are potentially offensive.

 

In a morning conference call with county leaders, Snively said, "We asked them to use common sense and good judgment and to be respectful."

 

Though 4-H campers spend much of the year having nothing to do with anything more potentially offensive than bake sales, in the summer they divide into four groups named after Indian tribes - Cherokee, Delaware, Mingo and Seneca

- and then participate in activities that involve totem poles and Indian-style headdresses and costumes. They sit in council circles, perform rain dances and shout and chant mock-Indian tribal yells. At the end of the summer, the team with the loudest yell is awarded a spirit stick.

 

Some counties already have been asked to stop rituals that have never been practiced statewide, Jones said. Face painting, which Jones likened to using blackface, has been halted. Nor will campers win spirit sticks.

 

Some had found the 80-year-old traditions offensive.

 

"West Virginia has many Irish," one complaining anonymous parent told the Charleston Gazette. "Why don't we have Irish clans, and they could compete for a crucifix?"

 

The rituals prompted a complaint that is now being investigated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Civil Rights, spokeswoman Maria Bynum said.

 

When word of the complaint surfaced and others piped up in an effort to save the summer camp rituals, Cote demanded that the USDA explain what exactly is wrong with the traditions.

 

"What are the specific allegations? Is it Indian headdresses, is it the circles, is it the yells?" he said in a telephone interview with Foxnews.com. "We started to get mixed signals from the USDA."

 

Cote asked for written clarification of the USDA's position on the use of American Indian customs in 4-H, the specific discriminatory practices that must be addressed and the timeline and methodology for addressing them. He also asked for a review of the directives made concerning 4-H.

 

"What we will do now is move as expeditiously as possible to slow this down," he said. "The ideal is that we would have at least a year before we make significant and lasting changes in camping."

 

Cote's move won the support of Charleston lawyer Jim Lees, who had planned to file a lawsuit against changes in the 4-H program on behalf of a 4-H alumni group.

 

But after receiving a faxed letter Monday from WVU President David Hardesty explaining the situation, Lees postponed the filing until Wednesday, and said he was sure the university would work it out.

 

"I believe WVU fully understands the problem and, under President Hardesty's guidance and direction, will work diligently to resolve the problem," he said.

 

At a press conference Tuesday, Hardesty said that the confusion lies squarely with the feds.

 

"The advice from the USDA has been a moving target, and we didn't realize that until we asked for it in writing," Hardesty said, calling the agency's guidance "ambiguous and unclear."

 

And while some people complained about the practice, many more American Indians support the program.

 

"I think it would be a shame to take the Native American customs out of the 4-H," said Virginia Smith, chief of the Appalachian American Indians of West Virginia. "I myself was in 4-H for years. I attended county camp and state camp. I was chief of the Cherokee Tribe during camp. They taught that the Indian people were to be respected. The only problem was that they didn't really know the Cherokee way."

 

Smith suggests incorporating members from her tribe into the summer camps to preserve the best traditions.

 

4-H, which is celebrating its centennial this year, is a federally organized youth educational program with state and local leaders. It has its roots in rural agricultural communities across the United States. Funding for 4-H is provided through a partnership between the USDA, the extension service and county commissions.

 

If the 4-H programs are found to violate civil rights laws, the extension service could lose at least $4.5 million a year in federal funds. The university could lose millions more in research funds.

 

"But the USDA's Office of Civil Rights can only recommend that, and it's up to the Justice Department to make that decision," Bynum said.

 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.