Summer Camp Eliminates Offensive Practice

March 24, 2002

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune

On March 24, 2002, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that "for 80 years, 4-H members at summer camp in West Virginia have split into tribes and followed rituals patterned after American Indian customs, from copying rain dances to wearing headdresses to creating self-styled tribal yells... Now, the practice -- a large part of the summer camps themselves -- is being eliminated because of a formal complaint that it is offensive to American Indians... West Virginia has more than 10,000 full-or mixed-blood American Indians, according to the 2000 census."