- Unami Lodge
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Unami Lodge 
Owner Cradle of Liberty Council Headquarters Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Location Philadelphia and surrounding counties Founded 1915 (with mergers in 1915 and 1996) Lodge Chief Kyle Hallowell Lodge Adviser Don Blank Staff Adviser Vacant Website
http://unamilodge.org/Unami Lodge, One, WWW, is the Order of the Arrow (OA) lodge of the Cradle of Liberty Council, Boy Scouts of America (BSA). It is the oldest OA lodge, having celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2005. The current Unami Lodge resulted from the 1996 merger of Unami Lodge 1 and Delmont Lodge 43, caused by the merger of Philadelphia Council and Valley Forge Council. The chiefs of each lodge agreed to preserve Unami's rich history and traditions by retaining the founding lodge's name and number. Delmont Lodge's history, including its roster of Vigil Honor, Founder's Award, and David Fortunato Outstanding Service Award recipients, is preserved as part of Unami Lodge's history. The lodge's totem is the turtle.
Contents
History
90th anniversary
The Order of the Arrow was founded in 1915 at a Scout summer camp on Treasure Island, on the Delaware River near Philadelphia. The two men principally responsible for its creation were camp director E. Urner Goodman and his assistant Carroll A. Edson.[1]
Goodman and Edson were looking for ways to improve the camp and to keep the older boys coming back. They looked at several sources in creating their new 'camp fraternity',[2][3] including:
- Edward Cave's Boy's Camp Book for the concept of a camp society that would perpetuate camp traditions.
- College fraternities for the concepts of Brotherhood and rituals, and the idea of new members pledging themselves to the new organization.
- Ernest Thompson Seton's Woodcraft Indians In fact, the true name of the Order means Brotherhood of Cheerful Service in the Lenape language.
- Brotherhood of Andrew and Philip[4], a Presbyterian church youth group with which Goodman had been involved as a young man.
- Freemasonry and its traditions and rituals probably contributed more to the basic structure of the rituals than any other organization. In an interview with Carroll Edson during his later years, he recalled that the task of writing the first rituals of the Order of the Arrow was assigned to an early member who was "a 32nd degree Mason." Familiar terms such as "lodge" and "obligation," were borrowed from Masonic practice, as were some ceremonial practices. Even the early national meeting was called a "Grand Lodge," thought to be a Masonic reference. Goodman became a Mason only after the OA was established.[5]
The Order earned official recognition as a BSA program experiment in 1922, along with several other honor societies.[6] It acquired its present name at the same time. A meeting of the National Lodge at the Owasippe Scout Reservation in 1933 voted to recommend that the BSA adopt it as part of its official program, which the National Council did in 1934. Full integration was completed in 1948.
Philadelphia Council also had several other OA lodges in the early days of the OA (an early bylaw allowed each Scout camp within a "first class council" to have its own OA lodge). A second Philadelphia Lodge (Unalachtigo, 8) based on the Turkey Clan of the Delawares is soon established at Philadelphia Council's Camp Biddle.[7] The others folded to become part of Unami Lodge after bylaw changes and camp closures.
Goodman wanted to develop methods to teach the scouts that proficiency in Scoutcraft skills was not enough, but that the principles embodied in the Scout Oath and Scout Law should be integrated in their lives. He developed a program based on peer recognition and the appeal of Indian lore. He used Ernest Thompson Seton's Woodcraft Indians to make the organization interesting and appealing to youth, which lead them to incorporating traditions and legends of the local Lenni Lenape (Delaware) Indians in the OA's ceremonies.
Edson and others helped research the history and language of the Delaware Indians who had been local to the area. The induction ceremonies developed for the lodge, would go on to be the foundation of all the ceremonies of the "Order of the Arrow." [5]
Delmont Lodge
Delmont Lodge 
Delmont Lodge flapHeadquarters Valley Forge, Pennsylvania Location Montgomery and Delaware Counties, PA Defunct 1996 (merged with Unami Lodge Delmont Lodge was the Order of the Arrow Lodge of the Valley Forge Council, Boy Scouts of America (BSA). It was the 43rd chartered OA lodge. With the merger of Valley Forge Council and Philadelphia Council in 1996 to form the Cradle of Liberty Council, Delmont Lodge merged with Unami Lodge. The chiefs of each lodge agreed to preserve Unami's rich history and traditions by retaining the founding lodge's name and number. Delmont Lodge's history, including its roster of Vigil Honor and Founder's Award recipients, are preserved as part of Unami Lodge's history. The lodge's totem was the Seville Memorial Cabin.[8]
See also
External links
References
- ^ Howes, James G. (2005). "The "Order of the Arrow" - Scouting's Honor Society". Atlas Communications. http://www.usscouts.org/honorsociety/oahistory.html. Retrieved 2007-05-29.
- ^ Davis, Ken (2000). Brotherhood of Cheerful Service: A History of the Order of the Arrow, 3rd edition. Order of the Arrow.
- ^ Block, Nelson (2000). A Thing of the Spirit, The Life of E. Urner Goodman. Boy Scouts of America.
- ^ wikisource:The New Student's Reference Work/1-0324
- ^ a b The History of the Order of the Arrow and its Founder, E. Urner Goodman
- ^ Other camping honor societies were created subsequent to 1915 at various Scout camps (see "Scout Honor Societies". U.S. Scouting Service Project. http://usscouts.org/honorsociety/honorscout.html.) As of 2007, only two BSA councils do not have associated OA lodges: Long Beach Area Council in California has the Tribe of Tahquitz and the Pony Express Council in Missouri has the Tribe of Mic-O-Say.
- ^ History - Unami Lodge One - Order of the Arrow
- ^ Comfort, Michael Gerard (1979). We Who Bear The Obligation..., The Fiftieth Anniversary History of Delmont Lodge 43, W.W.W. Walsworth Publishing Company, Marceline, MI
Categories:- Order of the Arrow
- Youth organizations based in Pennsylvania
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