Photograph

Since 1926, the YMCA has offered parent and child programs of structured opportunities for fellowship, camping, and community-building activities (including craft-making and community service), known now as Y-Guides but formerly as YMCA Indian Guides, Princesses, Braves, and Maidens. The program actually began under Harold Keltner, a St. Louis YMCA director, and indirectly, Joe Friday, an Ojibwa hunting guide. The program name was officially changed in 2003, but several YMCAs stayed true to the Native American theme, and some YMCA Indian Guides groups have separated from the YMCA and operate independently as the Native Sons and Daughters Programs from the National Longhouse. During the 1960s, Webster resident Ed Lyon and his son Dick (a.k.a. Big Hawk and LIttle Hawk, respectively) belonged to the Bay Area YMCA Indian Guides in Webster, New York. The pair created a wooden chest, decorated with primitive designs and marked for the Bay Area tribe, "Ginisaga." In this chest they stored club costumes, projects, photographs, newsletters, the script for a skit, and ceremonial artifacts connected with the club and its activities.