Inappropriation: The Contested Legacy of Y-Indian Guides - Softcover

Hillmer, Paul; Bean, Ryan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0826223214 ISBN 13: 9780826223210

Publisher: University of Missouri, 2024

Synopsis

In 1926, Harold Keltner, a YMCA Boys Work secretary from St. Louis, and Joe Friday, a member of the Canadian Ojibwe First Peoples, channeled white middle-class fascination with Native Americans into what became the Y-Indian Guides youth pro­gram, engaging over a half million participants across the nation at the height of its 77-year history. Intended to soften the stereo­typical stern father, the program traced a complicated thread of American history, touching upon themes of family, race, class, and privilege.

The Y-Indian Guides was a father-son (and later parent-child) program that encouraged real and enduring bonds through play and an authentic appreciation of family. While “playing Indian” seemed harmless to most participants during the pro­gram’s heyday, Paul Hillmer and Ryan Bean demonstrate the problematic nature of its methods. In the process of seeking to admire and emulate Indigenous Peoples, Y-Indian Guide participants often misrepresented American Indians and reinforced harmful ste­reotypes. Ultimately, this history demonstrates many ways in which American culture undermines and harms its Indigenous communities.

 

About this title

About the Author

Paul Hillmer is Professor Emeritus of History at Concordia University-St. Paul. He is the author of A People’s History of the Hmong.
 
Ryan Bean is the YMCA Archives Program Director for the Kautz Family YMCA Archives at the University of Minnesota Libraries.
 

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Missouri
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0826223214
• ISBN 13: 9780826223210
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 271