About Us

The Old Portage Longhouse is the local body which administers the aims of the YMCA Indian Guides.  This is a program rich in history and values designed to foster the understanding and companionship of father and son.

A Little Bit 'O History:

The Father and Son Y-Indian Guides Program was developed in a deliberate way to support the father's vital family role as teacher, counselor and friend to his son.  The program was initiated by Harold S. Keltner, St. Louis, YMCA Director, as an integral part of Association work.  In 1926 he organized the first tribe in Richmond Heights, MO, with the help of his good friend, Joe Friday, an Ojibway Indian, and William H. Hefelfinger, chief of the first Y-Indian Guide tribe.  These ideas stemmed back to father-son banquet ideas in 1912 at the Providence, RI YMCA

Local Administration:

Longhouse Chief - Britt Cherry, e-mail:  brittc@gmail.com

Our slogan is "Pals forever" and our aims are simple:

1.  To be clean in body and pure in spirit

2. To be "Pals Forever" with my father/son

3. To love the sacred circle of my family

4. To be attentive while others speak

5. To love my neighbor as myself

6. To seek and preserve the beauty of the Great Spirit's work in forest, field, and stream

Our Pledge:

We, Father and Son, through friendly service to each other, to our family, to this tribe, to our community, seek a world pleasing to the eye of the Great Spirit.

The Headband:  Father and son, through friendly services to each other, to our family, to this tribe, and to our community, seek a world pleasing to the eye of the Great Spirit.

The central theme of the HEADBAND is the eye of the Great Spirit surrounded by the four winds of heaven.  The feathered arrow designs which extend right and left from the central symbol represent the useful services of father and son.  The fact that the father-and-son achievements are united in the center of the design is interpreted to mean that fathers and sons together, under the eye of the Great Spirit, are seeking to help each other in the services they render.

To the right is the symbol of the mother and home.  A line connects the mother symbol with the tepee, or home symbol.  On the left are symbols of father and son.  Their relationship again is shown by the line that joins the two symbols.  These symbols add to the richness of the central theme, for it is in service to mother and home that many of the more significant achievements of father and son will take place.

Far to the right are symbols of day and forest.  Far to the left are symbols of mountain, lake, field, and stream, with the moon for night.