In 1926, Harold Keltner, a YMCA Boys Work secretary from St. Louis, and Joe Friday, a member of the Canadian Ojibwe First Peoples, channeled white middle-class fascination with Native Americans into what became the Y-Indian Guides youth program, engaging over a half million participants across the nation at the height of its 77-year history. Intended to soften the stereotypical stern father, the program traced a complicated thread of American history, touching upon themes of family, race, class, and privilege. The Y-Indian Guides was a father-son (and later parent-child) program that...
In 1926, Harold Keltner, a YMCA Boys Work secretary from St. Louis, and Joe Friday, a member of the Canadian Ojibwe First Peoples, channeled white mid...