OA’s tribal agreements are a fraud

Order of the Arrow, a BSA-branded operation, is known best for 111 years of redface minstrel shows.

In an incomplete reform attempt, BSA now requires OA-branded council operations to put some Native-themed programming under tribal purview. The authority is to be documented in a written agreement.

I am using “fraud” in a public-accountability sense: these agreements look like tribal oversight, but they are blanket permission slips, vague enough to let councils continue their OA-branded redface minstrel shows.

Given the powerful incentives for OA to perpetuate its redface minstrel show, I always suspected we’d see fraudulent tribal agreements. All of the agreements I have found are fraudulent.

OA’s ethical problem

One form of OA’s redface minstrel shows is where non-Native, teenage actors perform pageants based on “the legend”, which is just Western children’s fantasy fiction. The legend has a phony Native connection, where OA decorated this fantasy fiction with remixed, stolen, and fake tribal culture. OA treats tribal culture like war trophies of conquered peoples.

Many have been scammed by OA’s false claims of being an honor society or by its phony religion. The ensuing emotional connection drives aggressive, counterfactual defenses of OA. One example is that OA’s cosplay pageants are vital to preserving tribal culture.¹ Others White-wash this cultural theft as respect, honor, or appreciation of tribes.² There’s more. No matter the defenses, OA’s ethic celebrates the intended outcome of the USA’s white-supremacist tribal-eradication campaign. Had the campaign been successful, we’d be in a dystopia where tribal culture is divorced from any sense of ownership, and non-Indigenous people would be needed to preserve this culture.

Thankfully, the campaign was stopped. Tribes still exist.

The naked truth is OA has always stolen tribal culture for its own profit. This profit is measured in coherence. With this stolen culture, OA concocts a faux, animist-pagan religion. This religion distracts everyone from OA’s incoherence. Without the religion, OA’s absurdity becomes obvious, and OA collapses.

This profit shows up in other facets of the OA redface minstrel show. For example, OA permits³ councils to name their OA operations—lodges and chapters—with words stolen from Indigenous peoples, often from the Lenape people.⁴ OA gains gravitas from its use of these stolen words, similar to how military impostors benefit from stolen valor.

OA’s intent

In 2024, OA announced it will clean up some of its act, only allowing Indigenous-themed performances in councils that have a written agreement with a local state- or federally-recognized tribe.⁵ This policy went into effect on January 1, 2026.⁶

Few councils appear to be publicly disclosing agreements. I am currently aware of three agreements, and each is fraudulent: it evades the intent of OA’s restriction, or it was struck with a fraudulent entity, or both!

OA intends that councils restrict AIA to what is authorized under a written agreement with a local⁷ tribe.

In its AIA Policy page, OA says “[t]ribes may determine to what extent they want [councils] to conduct American Indian programming.”⁸ As it would be unethical for a tribe to authorize use of any other tribe’s culture, the most a tribe could authorize is use of that tribe’s own culture.

OA further clarifies that councils “are free to pursue multiple agreements if they would like to offer a wider variety of programs that appreciate the different traditions in their area.”⁹ The only reason that OA would say that is because each tribe can only ethically authorize use of its own culture. Councils that wish to employ culture of additional tribes must reach an agreement with those tribes.

To summarize, tribal agreements may only authorize councils to use the culture of the tribe they struck an agreement with. The ethics of this are obvious, and OA’s own words reinforce those ethics.

Fraud: Old Hickory Council evades intent

Here’s an example agreement that Old Hickory Council struck with a tribe (names of the tribe and individuals, other than the council CEO, are redacted):

This agreement does not restrict this council to using only the culture of the signing tribe. In fact, the first bullet’s phrase “the practices of the American Indian people vary from tribe to tribe” does a lot of work. It is a license to continue the old practices, where the council may freely steal from any tribe!

As evidence of theft, Old Hickory Council’s OA operation is named “Wahissa Lodge”. While “wahissa” is likely a Lenape-derived word¹⁰, the agreement was signed with a group claiming Siouan heritage, a different branch of tribes that cannot ethically grant use of Lenape culture.

In granting this unethical, universal license, the signing tribe gets little in return: an annual written report and “best efforts” to support an annual tribe event.

The important point is how this agreement evades a key intent behind tribal agreements. It does not restrict the council to use of the signing tribe’s culture.

Fraud: Indian Waters Council evades intent

Here’s another agreement, this time between the Indian Waters Council and a tribe¹¹:

Did you see that? It’s based on the same template! Look at the first bullet. The truck-sized loophole appears again, freely allowing resumption of OA’s 111 years of racist cultural theft. And the theft is laid out in the document, which indicates that Indian Water Council’s OA operation is named “Muscogee Lodge”. “Muscogee” is obviously a reference to the Muscogee people, yet this agreement was signed with an entity claiming Cherokee association.

Just stammer “honor” and “respect”, and the redface minstrel show resumes!

Fraud: Indian Waters Council’s agreement with a fraudulent entity

It gets worse. The “tribe” Indian Waters Council signed with appears on the Cherokee Identity Protection Committee’s list of fabricated groups.

The Cherokee Identity Protection Committee, a collaboration of the three federally-recognized Cherokee tribes–Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Cherokee Nation, United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians–is a 2011 initiative to root out fake tribes. It compiled a list of 211 “fabricated groups” on what it calls a “Fraud List”.¹²

In this collaboration, these tribes “protect our elders and traditionalists by stopping these [fake tribes] and individuals from appropriating our culture, language and traditions.”¹³

These tribes later released an forceful 2020 joint statement condemning the fake tribes. One section also eviscerates OA’s 111 years of redface minstrel shows¹⁴:

6)  We condemn all individuals and collectivities that ‘play Indian’ or ‘play Cherokee’ in all its forms, regardless of the intent.  This includes the widespread practice of forming fraudulent, so-called ‘state-recognized’ Cherokee tribes or nonprofit organizations that claim to confer Cherokee citizenship.  Non-Cherokees should never participate in Cherokee cultural expressions unless under the direct guidance of a Cherokee citizen.

Put differently, these tribes are concerned about fake entities that, just like OA’s redface minstrel show, use stolen, native culture for their own profit. By entering into a loophole-ridden agreement with a fake tribe, the Indian Waters Council is perpetuating the act that the Cherokee tribes find deeply harmful!

For the sake of argument, let’s suppose they are wrong, and these entities are legitimate? Even if that is true, by entering into an agreement with an entity on that list, Indian Waters Council picked a side in a major dispute, and it picked the side the major Cherokee tribes find deeply harmful.

Native people and their advocates have warned me about this. Deciding what counts as a legitimate tribe, or who is a Native American, is complex. It is beyond the scope of Scouting to weigh in on this, but these tribal agreements force us to do so. Why, though? Why does BSA permit councils to pick sides in a dispute where it has no skin in the game? How does this help BSA do Scouting better?

Fraud: Northeast Georgia Council does all of the above

Northeast Georgia Council provides another example of the duplicity of OA culture.

This is the council’s tribal agreement¹⁵:

The childish font and that the council didn’t publish a signed agreement reveal the unseriousness of this document. The words confirm its a fraud.

First, this is yet another agreement with what the recognized Cherokee tribes have declared a fraudulent entity. As per above, even if this entity is not a fraud, by picking sides in this dispute, BSA enters a space it does not belong.

Second, this agreement does not clearly limit the lodge to use of any tribe’s culture. With its soft, aspirational language; avoidance of words or phrases like “must”, “limited to” “shall only”, or similar; and no compliance mechanism, this agreement does not restrict which Native culture Northeast Georgia Council may use.

Even worse, the first provision blesses BSA’s longstanding theft of Native culture as “a celebrated part of its programming”. That frames this agreement as continuity of OA’s racist pageantry, not a corrective restriction on it.

Other provisions confirm the above:

• While provision 4 includes “more locally focused”, that is not a boundary, it’s just an aspirational emphasis.
• Provision 5’s aspirational language is undercut by “the traditions of those Native Americans who were and are a part of the geographic area shared by both parties”. This is a permission slip for Northeast Georgia Council to use any tribe’s tradition as long as its current or historical territory roughly corresponds to the council’s territory or broader Cherokee territory, which historically overlapped multiple states.

Fraud: North Florida Council also evades transparency

I have called for OA to require transparency on tribal agreements. I insist they be posted on council websites. This is necessary because 111 years of racist sins, combined with aggressive denials of these sins, eviscerates trust. Non-public agreements are as good as no agreement. Also, OA is about appreciating tribes, right? Wouldn’t councils want to brag about formal agreements that confirm this appreciation?

North Florida Council validates my concern. After learning that this council struck an agreement with a tribe, an adult member asked this council’s Lodge Advisor–the adult-volunteer role that oversees a council’s OA operation–for a copy of the agreement. The Lodge Advisor refused.

Why? Because it’s another fraudulent agreement!

First, it’s with another fraudulent entity on the Cherokee list!

Second, the Advisor admitted the agreement has no end date, despite OA’s guidance that agreements should “have a set duration”.¹⁶

Third, this agreement has the truck-sized loophole. The Advisor confirmed this when he said that with the fraudulent agreement, the faux-Cherokee tribe gave North Florida Council cover to keep naming its OA operation with a word stolen from the Seminole people. He then twists the knife, diminishing the Seminole people’s ownership of their own culture by stating (paraphrased) “there are a lot of people who wear Seminole-style jackets as fashion items!”

The Lodge Advisor signed off on his conversation with a “trust me, bro”-style statement (again, paraphrased): “A Scout is Trustworthy. You can take my word for it and don’t need to see the letter.”

Sorry, bro, after 111 years of OA’s racist sins, we can’t trust you. No public agreement is as good as the agreement not existing. If these are real, show the receipts.

OA does not verify tribal agreements

BSA’s national OA office doesn’t verify these agreements. Councils only “attest” to the existence of an agreement.¹⁷ It’s more “trust me, bro”, captured in a checkbox on an annual form.¹⁸

In a conversation with a concerned person, a national OA representative implausibly conveyed that BSA does not have time to review tribal agreements. With a large OA national committee, BSA can review these agreements.¹⁹ It doesn’t want to.

And I can understand why. The OA committee performs poorly. For example, it took almost 5 years to rewrite its children’s fantasy fiction.

But the problem cuts more deeply. If OA reviewed these agreements, they wouldn’t pass muster. But OA needs these agreements. OA is addicted to its redface minstrel show. It can’t stop. That’s why:

• OA fraudulently claims reform while allowing loophole-ridden agreements.
• OA fraudulently claims tribal oversight while refusing to verify agreements.
• OA fraudulently claims “respect”, “honor”, etc. while continuing to steal Indigenous culture for use as institutional decoration.

Retire it!

OA is a fraud. OA is an embarrassment to Scouting.

It gets worse. OA isn’t even a program of BSA.²⁰ It’s just a branded operation that has crept so far outside its lane, it cannibalizes and displaces the actual programs, and it helps trap high schoolers in a middle-school program. It maps poorly to what Scouting even is.

Why is anyone bothering to save this?

OA must be retired. We must instead invest in the actual Scouting programs.

1. (this is provided as a representative example) National Bulletin, Order of the Arrow, Issue 1, Volume LXII, Spring 2015. See page 9 where someone associated with a different country’s Scouting movement proclaims that “Native American history and legacy is preserved and honored by the [OA] Scouts”. Given that this person doesn’t live in the USA and is likely unfamiliar with OA, he was likely to have been told the preserving-culture scam by the redface minstrel show’s actors. ↩︎
2. (this is provided as a representative example) Field Operations Handbook, Order of the Arrow, November 2025. Page 27 includes “Respect for American Indian culture, tradition, and heritage is a key component of Order of
   the Arrow programs.” ↩︎
3. AIA Policy, Order of the Arrow. See section titled “Do lodges or chapters need to change their names, totems, or other items that use American Indian names or terms?” This section upholds the longstanding practice of decorating facets of OA with stolen tribal culture. ↩︎
4. Order of the Arrow cleanliness audit. See the source data, linked below the graph. ↩︎
5. “Policy Update: Changes Regarding American Indian Programming“, Order of the Arrow website, September 24, 2024. ↩︎
6. Ibid. ↩︎
7. AIA Policy, Order of the Arrow. Throughout the policy, “local” is exclusively used to define geographic limits on the tribe’s location. ↩︎
8. AIA Policy, Order of the Arrow. See section titled “Will lodges be provided with a template or sample agreement needed to establish a relationship with their local tribe?” ↩︎
9. Ibid. ↩︎
10. Various clues suggest this is an Anglicized spelling of a Lenape word relating to goddess, beauty, or happiness. ↩︎
11. Muscogee Ensures Future of AIA Program, Indian Waters Council (via its website for its OA operation, named Muscogee Lodge) ↩︎
12. Matthew L.M. Fletcher, “Eastern Band Establishes Cherokee Identity Protection Committee“, Turtle Talk, October 17, 2011. While this article claims 212 entities, its data source lists 211. ↩︎
13. Ibid. ↩︎
14. “Cherokee Scholars’ Statement on Sovereignty and Identity“, Think Tsalagi ᎢᏓᏓᏅᏛᎵ ᏣᎳᎩ, February 13, 2020. ↩︎
15. A New Day… A New Era…, Northeast Georgia Council (through the website of its OA operation, named Mowogo Lodge) ↩︎
16. AIA Policy, Order of the Arrow. See section titled “Will lodges be provided with a template or sample agreement needed to establish a relationship with their local tribe?” ↩︎
17. AIA Policy, Order of the Arrow. See section titled “Who is responsible for maintaining the agreement between the lodge and the tribe?” ↩︎
18. AIA Policy, Order of the Arrow. See section titled “How often does the agreement with a tribe need to be renewed?” ↩︎
19. “National Order of the Arrow Committee“, from the Order of the Arrow website of the Boy Scouts of America. ↩︎
20. Rules and Regulations of the Boy Scouts of America, October 28, 2025. At the top of page 12 is “The youth programs of the Boy Scouts of America are Cub Scouts, Scouts BSA, Venturing, Sea Scouts, and Lone Scout.” ↩︎