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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.
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