A Campfire Pioneering Ceremony

Two small tepee fires are ready, one on each side of a large unlighted log cabin-type of council fire. The master of campfire, in buckskin or Scouting costume, calls the council fire to order. An Indian enters and lights the first tepee fire, using a bowand-drill method. Immediately, a buckskin pioneer with a fur hat enters and lights the second tepee fire with flint and steel. These two characters may act simultaneously, if desired.

Master of Campfire: You see before you the fires made by the Indian and the pioneer. The red man's fires lighted the forests and plains of this great land many years before the white man came. His council fire was all-important; around it many tribal decisions were made. The fires of the hardy pioneers lighted the trails of the covered wagons and warmed the first American log cabins. The fires of these ancestors of ours lighted the way to those settlements that are now great cities in every corner of our land. We light our own council fire from the flames of the campfires of the Indian and the pioneer. May their ideals and their courage burn brightly in our hearts! (Two Scouts come forward holding unlighted candles. Each stands near one of the fires and waits at attention.)

Master of Campfire: We now light ... (Scouts take flame from the tepee fires and light the large council fire, one Scout standing on each side of it. Then they retire quietly. If this is done as an Indian ceremony, you will prefer to present it to the soft and very slow beat of an Indian drum, used as a musical background.)

Opening Chants
1. As the flames point upward, so be our aim.
    As the red logs glow, so be our sympathies.
    As the gray fades, so be our errors.
    As the good fire warms the circle, so may our ideals warm the world.

2. Spirit Red, Spirit Red - thy hunger must be fed.
Spirit Hot, Spirit Hot-forget us not, forget us not.

As the year grows old, keep us from the cold.
Spirit White, Spirit White-in the darkness of the night, be our shining light.
I now declare the campfire open.