If he’s successful — and he should be, I think — 9 year-old Kinlichiinii John will make history. He asks the Boy Scouts of America to recognize the Navajo religion Azeé Bee Nahagha, his own faith, so that he can earn a religious award as a Cub Scout.
He already has the backing of the President of the Navajo Nation, Joe Shirley, Jr.
[Associated Press via Santa Fe New Mexican] Cub Scout Kinlichiinii John of Clermont, Fla., front middle, poses with his family while holding a Cub Scout manual in his hands during his visit to Window Rock, Ariz. on Aug. 1, 2007. John recently visited Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley in Window Rock, where Shirley offered his support to John, who hopes to earn and establish a Boy Scouts of America Religious Emblem that recognizes his faith in traditional Navajo spiritual way of life, or Azee Bee Nahagha _ also called the Native American Church. Although emblems exist for 35 other religious affiliations, no emblem exists for American Indian religions. (AP photo/Navajo Nation, George Hardeen)
It is neither an easy task, nor a sure thing. While the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America recognizes religious awards, it leaves the rules governing such awards to the religious groups themselves. BSA rules on whether the faith measures up to Boy Scout standards, and authorizes Scouts to wear the religious medal when they earn it, or to wear an emblem over their left pocket to signify they have earned their faith’s religious award.
32 faiths (according to the count at USScouts) have awards for Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, and some faiths have more than one award a Scout may earn as a Cub or a Boy Scout. According to the Associated Press, via the Santa Fe New Mexican:
But searching through emblems available for 35 religious affiliations, the 9-year-old found that none exist for the traditional Navajo spiritual way of life or the Native American Church — both of which his family practices.
So Kinlichiinii, along with his family, Navajo medicine men and others, are on a quest to establish the first American Indian religious emblem that he and other boys with similar beliefs could display on their uniforms.
Kinlichiinii wears the neckerchief of a Webelos Scout, a program for the last two years of Cub Scouting. One wonders whether the organizations involved will be able to move quickly enough to authorize the award before he moves on to a Boy Scout troop. Perhaps he should work on a Boy Scout award for the native Navajo faith as well; and perhaps he should keep good records of the time he puts in, and consider using this campaign as his Eagle project. We hope he can get his goal more quickly than that, but we also hope he gets full recognition for the massive project he’s taken on at such a young age.
BSA now requires groups offering religious awards to charter at least 25 Scout units — Cub Scout Packs, Boy Scout Troops, Venture Crews, or Sea Scout Ships. Unless native Navajo churches are close to that total already, it may be more than two years to meet that requirement for the award. There may not be 25 Navajo units of the Native American faith.
P.S. — The AP story notes that the Navajo church uses peyote in some religious services. This is wholly legal under a law Congress passed in deference to religious freedom — cosponsored by my old boss, Orrin Hatch, among others. A comment at the Santa Fe New Mexican website questions whether the Scouts would approve an award from such a group. Since the practice is specifically authorized under U.S. law, one might hope that is not a consideration.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Pam at Grassroots Science.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
I give this young man an awful lot of credit for standing up for his beliefs and for wanting nothing more or less than to be treated equitably.
Mama Kelly
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Who knows? Reason may prevail and an award may be authorized quickly, but I wouldn’t count on it. In long experience with Scouting [I was one, then became cub scout and scout adult leader as my son became one as well, all the way to Eagle and summer jobs on Philmont Staff], I noticed that there was often a substantial difference between Official Scout Policy out of the HQ in Texas, and the kind of wink wink, nudge nudge obedience to the more bureaucratic and nonsensical decrees of National at the pack and troop level. Nobody ever asked me religious questions when I was a Scout to make sure I met the minimal standards of the day in that regard. Nor did I ever ask a kid, when I became an adult leader, such questions. I did not know the faiths of the parents of most of my pack kids and troop kids, and I did not care. I certainly never asked any kid or any parent if they were atheists or not. I’d have quit if anyone had tried to make me. Nor did any other leader I had or knew of.
I don’t know how typical the troops I was involved in as scout and leader were, but we seemed to operate in many ways under “don’t ask don’t tell” rules. The idea was to get the kids out hiking, camping, out into the woods or onto the lakes and rivers, and out of the cities we lived in. That came first and foremost, always. Worked for me. Worked for my son. Seemed to work for others.
Granted, there are some holier-than-thou parents and leaders out there…. my favorites were the ones in California who insisted that two Tiger Cubs [about five years old, I think] were thrown out of a Pack for being atheists — which meant of course that their parents were. And the good Christian parents who ran the pack weren’t going to have any little atheist five year olds in their pack, by God. And national backed them up on that idiocy.
Any sane individual should be able to understand that no five year old has a religion. A five year old reflects the religion of his or her parents. To tell two five year olds that they can’t come to pack meetings, play games, go on picnics, visit zoos, fly kites, roast marshmallows and such because their parents are not believes is nuts. But national backed the pack leaders on this. [Some years ago now.]
So on matters of Officially Acceptable Things For Scouts To Believe, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for a Navajo Traditionals religious award. Unless, of course, they’d be willing to sponsor 25 troops, which apparently would somehow make the traditionals’ religious beliefs more acceptable and the award more likely.
It’s a good organization, Scouting, overall. It gets kids, especially city kids, off the pavement and into the woods. And… despite what National says… it’s main benefit is to teach children self reliance [not “leadership”]. But sometimes… just sometimes… those pontificating Christian bureaucrats at National act with such a lack of common sense, the only sensible response is to yes them to death, and then go on doing what the local leaders have been doing with great success all along.
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