Begin Again Playing Indian


Boy Scout, Monument Square, Portland, 1920

Boy Scout, Monument Square, Portland, 1920
Item 23717   info
Maine Historical Society/MaineToday Media

A Boy Scout in uniform bit into a pancake he made with other Boy Scouts. The cooking was done in Portland's Monument Square.

Groups like the Boy Scouts, Campfire Girls, and Improved Order of the Red Men appropriated Native culture. At the same time they were admiring the perceived Indigenous traditions and perpetuated myths about Indigenous people, Native people were being removed from their Homelands, were prevented from speaking their languages or practicing their traditions, and were resisting having their cultures erased through forced assimilation.

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