A Brief History
The Indian Guide movement came to be as a result of long, deliberate planning to help the American father become a pal to his son. Today, the world wide program is also offered to father/daughters, mother/daughters, and mothers/sons.
In 1925, Harold S. Keltner brought an Objibwa Indian, Joe Friday, from Canada who stayed several years as a member of the staff of the Southside YMCA in St. Louis, Missouri. Talks and lectures by this Indian were enthusiastcially attended. At a father and son banquet one evening, after he had given one of his talks, Joe Friday was so closely surrounded by the fathers that the boys could not get near him. This gave Keltner the idea around which a practical program for fathers and sons would be built. He saw that the common interest in the American Indian would provide a meeting theme on which the interests of fathers and sons would join at the same level. Thus the work began. In 1926, Mr. Keltner organized the Osage Tribe in Richmond Heights, Missouri. In 1954, the Y-Indian Princesses were formed in Fresno, California, supporting a need for a daughter's growth by following the success demonstrated in the Indian Guide programs. The Algonquin Nation Indian Princesses were founded in 1995.