The following article ran in the February 1948 Boys’ Life magazine.

Sun Dance Lodge

By Charles VINSON

These members of the Canalino Lodge have established a high mark for authentic Indian Lore by adopting the ordeal of the Teton Sioux Indians to the Order of the Arrow initiation, with dramatic and startling results

IN QUAINT old Santa Barbara, noted for its Spanish mission and colorful Fiesta, the native rhythms of Indian tom-toms seemed quite out of place.  But on the quiet dusk of a February evening last year, there could be no doubt as to the origin of the sounds, which echoed over the red tiled roofs and through the flagstone-paved patio restaurants.

The more curious set out to investigate, convince as most Californians would be, that this was some new publicity stunt.  The assumption was entirely correct.  But even these residents of the famed resort, perched on a mountain side overlooking the wide blue Pacific, were scarcely prepared for the sight that greeted them in the patio of their own Spanish-styled Court House.

The forma sunken garden in the Court House patio housed a tepee village, and before a blazing campfire a group of Indians danced the intricate heel and toe steps of the Sioux Shield Dance.  Painted shields, beautifully decorated with buffalo skulls, broken arrows, and bear claw designs, were waved aloft by the dancers, while other tribal members intoned the weird Indian chant to the drumming of tom-toms.

A crowd gathered to watch.  The show was excellent, but they were curious.  This wasn’t the ordinary publicity stunt, and they wanted to learn the facts.  Certainly it wasn’t everyone the county officials allowed to use the beautiful sunken gardens.

“Who are they?  What’s the occasion?” was asked on all sides as the audience grew rapidly in size.  “Didn’t know there was an Indian show coming to town,” someone exclaimed.

The crowd applauded enthusiastically at the end of the dance.  An Indian, dressed in the huge eagle feather headdress of a Chieftain, stepped forward to address the gathering.

A Real Publicity Stunt

He raised his arms aloft, in a solemn gesture for silence, and then, in the easy simple language of any American boy, explained that the occasion was the Anniversary Week of the Boy Scouts of America.  The Indian encampment was sponsored by the Canalino Lodge of the Order of the Arrow, national brotherhood of honor campers.  The dancers they had just seen were all sons of Santa Barbara residents, and were Scouts.

There wasn’t an Indian among them.  Yet, their costumes and dances were authentic, being the final result of a great deal of research, done principally at Santa Barbara’s own museum.

The purpose?  Oh, just to remind people that it was Boy Scout Anniversary Week.  The members of the Order of the Arrow thought the townspeople would be interested because it was their support that made it possible for the Mission Council of the Boy Scouts of America to bring Scouting to the boys of Santa Barbara.

The crowd swelled out of its chest and applauded enthusiastically, their initial skepticism having been replaced by a growing sense of price.  These were home town boys, and they really had something.  Most of the crowd stayed to see other dances.

For the remained of the week, the Indian village a the Court House was a center of attraction in Santa Barbara.  Crowds came, and a local radio station did an on-the-spot broadcast.

It was the sort of publicity stunt that Californians love.

However, if the general populace of Santa Barbara weren’t previously aware of the Canalino Lodge, the same couldn’t be said for those connected with Scouting.  Every Scout in the Mission Council dreams of the day he’ll be tapped out as a candidate for the Order of the Arrow.

Scouts Desire Membership

Once each summer, beneath the low spreading live oak trees of Tequipis Canyon, in the nearby Santa Inez Mountains, a special campfire is held by the Canalino Lodge.  Scouts from every Troop in the Mission Council attend that campfire, dressed as Indians, even if it means merely draping a blanket over their shoulders.

One has to attend this opening ceremony of the Sun Dance Camp to realize the enthusiasm, the undercurrent of excitement, that grips the assembled Scout guests.  For out of that gathering, a few observing Scouts will be tapped as candidates for the Order of the Arrow.  And until they are tapped, only the Scoutmasters of the lucky Scouts and some members of the Canalino Lodge know who they will be.

Yet, each Troop has elected its own candidates by secret ballot.  To be eligible for this honor camping society, a Troop must have at least eight Scout campers, who have spent a minimum of fifteen days and nights in the out-of-doors, not more than seven of this have been on long term camps.  From the list of eligible Scout campers the Troop may elect two candidates.

To be tapped signifies one of the highest honors recognized by the Scouts of the Mission Council.  For the high caliber membership of the Canalino Lodge makes the association with fellow order of the Arrow members something to be desired, not to mention the honor itself.

Organized an Area Meeting

It was back in 1936 that the Canalino Lodge started with eleven charter members.  Theirs was the first Order of the Arrow Lodge on the west coast, although other Councils in Southern California quickly organized lodges, for the popularity of this honor camping brotherhood was spreading.  Now, far more than half of the Scout Councils in Ameria have lodges.

Out on the west coast the Canalino Lodge was proud of its accomplishments, but they were also curious about what the other lodges were doing.  So in the spring of 1945 they sent out invitations to all the lodges in Southern California to attend an Area meeting of the Order of the Arrow.  The response was greater than anyone had expected.

The gathering was broken up into discussion groups, covering a wide range of topics:  ceremonies, costumes, dances, Chief’s council, service, budget, and insignia.

One thing was apparent from the start.  The Order of the Arrow members were leaders in their Councils back home.  And they were eager to exchange ideas.

The host lodge sought to draw out an exchange of ideas by demonstration of their own various projects.  Canalino Lodge members attended meetings dressed in their home-made Indian costumes.  The other lodges were dumb-founded at the beauty and completeness of these costumes for as a rule Indian costumes are what people think the Indians look like, not an authentic reproduction of what Indians really wore.

Authentic Indian Lore

Andy Bisaccia, back in 1942, had become a bug about Indian costumes.  With the help of the anthropologist at the Santa Barbara Museum, he started his own private research.  Once Andy made his own beautiful Indian costume, patterned on Plains Indian designs, the rest of the Canalino Lodge had followed his lead.  So it was only natural that Andy led the discussion on Indian crafts and dances.

This first area meeting wound up its three day fellowship with a resolution for all lodges to follow the lead of the Canalino Lodge in making authentic costumes and giving authentic Indian dances.

The Services Rendered

But it was in the exchange of ideas for service to Scouting that this first area meeting made its greatest contribution.  The Canalino Lodge has seen to it that their was not just a summertime organization.  They took a wider view of their responsibilities, and imparted this idea to the other lodges.

Each year the Canalino Lodge sponsors a Senior Scout Ball for the Senior Scouts of the Mission Council, arranges for Anniversary Week window displays, and gets needed work done at the Council’s summer camp.

But more important, they are active the year around in promoting good camping.  It is the responsibility of each member to demonstrate to a Troop, at least once a month, various techniques of good camping.  To do this the Order of the Arrow member is free to call upon fellow members for assistance.  In this way they have undertaken to help each Troop construct as much of their own camping equipment as possible, and are at the present time concentrating on pack frames.

Origin of the Sun Dance

As a result of the interest show by other Lodges, and the frequent requests for them to stage their own ceremonial dance, Byron Kane and Bob Peterson suggested the Canalino Lodge learn the Teton Sious Sun Dance.  At the time, Andy Bisaccia was Chieftain, and he immediately completed the needed research to stage this Indian ordeal.

Andy learned that it had been customary, when in danger, for an entire Sioux war party to vow that its members would take part in the next Sun Dance.  If he vowed to dance, the warrior would abstain from food and water, and dance, with face uplifted to the sun, from morning until night and on through the night, and continue dancing the next day until he collapsed from exhaustion.  Or, he might vow to be suspended by his flesh, until the flesh tore.  This was usually done by piercing the skin of the chest with sticks, fastened by rawhide thongs to a pole, and dancing and pulling away until the sticks were torn from the flesh.

The fact that the Sun Dance was an ordeal captured the imagination of the Canalino Lodge.  For the initiation ceremony of the National Lodge of the Order of the Arrow, which was founded in 1921, calls for a candidate to participate in a prescribed ordeal designed to test the candidate’s character and his skill as a camper.

First O. of A. Sun Dance

It was in 1946 that the Canalino Lodge first staged their Sun Dance Ceremony.  Following the traditional tapping of candidates, the assembled guests were invited to attend, the following afternoon, the Sun Dance, an interpretation of the Indian ordeal.

The night the new candidates, deprived of food and water and all comforts, other than a sleeping bag, spent the night alone, at remote spots on the mountains in accordance with the regular Order of the Arrow ordeal.

The next day, when a slice of bread and a glass of water was a big meal, they worked around Camp Drake clad in breechclout and moccasins.

During the day a ceremonial pole was cut by the lodge members.  After being striped with red paint, and having a cross arm fastened to it, it was erected in the tribal circle, composed of a ring of tepees open to the east.  To the cross arm was fastened the thongs, at the end of which are the skewers, or sticks, with which those participating in the Indian ordeal pierce the skin.

The Sun Dance Ceremony

The Sun is well past its zenith, and the oak trees are casting long shadows over the tribal circle, before the Sun Dance starts.  The Chieftain, the Medicine Man, the Leader of the Dancers, followed by the Braves of the Canalino Lodge, enter the tribal circle from the east.  The Chieftain carries the Sun Dance pipe, the Medicine Man a sealed pipe and tobacco pouch, and the Leader of the Dancers a buffalo skull.  Some of the Braves carry tom-toms, and the entire lodge sings the opening song of the Sun Dance.

The procession passes around the tribal circle, the candidates coming out of their tepees and falling in behind the lodge members.  The symbolic pipe and skull are then placed on a bed of sage near the ceremonial pole–after which the Chieftain smokes the Sun Dance pipe, blowing smoke to the four corners of the earth, to the Mother Earth and the sky.

The Guide then brings the candidates before the ceremonial pole, and the Chieftain symbolizes the cutting of the flesh with a knife.  The Medicine Man then tapes onto each candidate’s chest the skewer.

Singing “With Dauntless Courage,” a Teton Sioux song, the lodge members commence to dance around the ceremonial pole, while the candidates pretend to attempt to break away from the skewers, supposedly fastened in their flesh.

A Success Story Now

As the dance is about to end, the candidates complete their breakaway and return to their tepee.  But the story of the gigantic feed and social that follows, which signifies the candidates have completed their ordeal and are now members of the Order of the Arrow, is known to all Mission Council Scouts.

Also, the story of the Canalino Lodge’s Sun Dance has spread throughout Southern California.  Other lodges have sent observers.  And this year the Canalino Lodge anticipates and even larger audience.  Their fame is spreading.

And it is even possible that the sound of tom-toms echoing through the patios and flagstone-paved hallways of Santa Barbara will not again completely surprise the residents of this California resort town.  They rather expect the Canalino Lodge to be staging something for the good of Scouting, and they feel that what’s good for Scouting is good for the community.

Charles Vinson

Charles Vinson wrote for Boys’ Life.