Ernest Seton Vs Robert Baden-Powell: Woodcraft Indians

Woodcraft Indians: Ernest Thompson Seton

America Comes Alive

Ernest Seton (1860-1946) was born in County Durham. Having lost a sig­nificant money in Britain, his dad left for Canada to try farm­ing. Much of Ernest’s life in his early teens was centred in the wooded ravines at the edge of Toron­to, studying nature. 

Ernest displayed an artistic talent and gained a scholarship for London’s Royal Academy of Art. But he went to New York instead where met with many natural­ists, ornithologists and writers. And un­til the late 1880s, he split his time between Toronto and New York.

This Canadian was a gifted wildlife illust­rator and writer, who had already produced several scientific books. But his major contribution came through teaching environmentalism to young people. The concept for forming the Woodcraft Indians began near Green­wich. Seton and his wife bought a home surrounded by beautiful, wooded land. Although the area had long been used by local teenagers to hunt small game, Seton wanted to prevent hunting on his property and fenced it. This angered the local teens who vandalised his fences and gates.

In 1902 Seton decided to instruct the vandals. He invited them to spend the weekend camping on his property, delighting the boys with stories about Native Amer­icans and nature. Seton was concerned not mere­ly to preserve resources for man’s use, a la today’s conservat­ion, but also to defend the ecological balances of nature in the wild. So he focused on American Indians who’d lived in harmony with those balances, whereas the white man destroyed them.

The result of this camping weekend was a group of boys who became interested in nature, conservation and Native American tradit­ions. En­couraged by the boys’ response, Seton wrote articles for Ladies' Home Journal during 1902, under the heading Seton's Boys. Those articles later were published together in Birch Bark Roll.

Seton taught games and non-hunting activities that would let the boys explore the fields and woods. They established their own leadership hierarchy and made their own tribal clothing to wear.

Seton’s national publicity worked so well that he dev­eloped plans for more groups of the Woodcraft Indians across America. He wrote: “The Woodcraft Indians would help bring together young people from various stations, break down the barriers that society has foolish­ly placed upon them, and establish in their minds when they are young a finer kind of humanity, a real under­standing that the imp­ortant thing is the association of a human spirit.”

After the Boer War, British military hero Lord Robert Baden-Powell returned home as a hero. He soon learn­ed that one of the booklets that he had prepared for his soldiers, Aid to Scouting, was being used by British groups to guide lads. So the leader of the Boys’ Brig­ade, an inter­denominational Christian organisation, asked Baden-Powell to expand a programme, to teach young men good cit­iz­enship. Baden-Powell had heard of Ernest Seton’s work in the USA and invited him over to discuss it. Seton travelled to the UK in 1904 and 1906, hoping that the UK would establish chapters of the Woodcraft Ind­ians. He gave a copy of The Birch Bark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians to Baden-Powell, and the two men bonded.

In 1908, Seton got a letter from Baden-Powell stating that he was going ahead with his vision for The Boy Scouts was being founded, using Seton’s programme as a base. Baden-Powell wrote Scouting for Boys and incorp­orated many of Seton’s ideas and games into his book. Seton deferred to Baden Powell in America and set aside the Woodcraft Indian idea in favour of Scouting; nonetheless the Boy Scouts of America always looked to Seton as their founder.

In 1910 Seton merged his Wood­craft Indian chapters into the newly formed group and served as Chief Scout Executive. Daniel C Beard (1850–1941) was an American youth leader who founded the Sons of Daniel Boone in 1905, which Beard immediately merged with the Boy Scouts of America.

Seton set out the Cardinal Principles of Woodcraft in 1910:
(1) This movement is essentially for recreation.
(2) Camp-life is the simple life reduced to actual practice, as well as the culmination of the outdoor life.
(3) Self-government with Adult Guidance. Control from without is a poor thing when you can get control and self-governing from within.
(4) Magic of the Campfire is the focal centre of all primitive brotherhood. Use its magic powers.
(5) Pursuits. Manhood, not scholarship is the aim of education, so seek outdoor pursuits that develop the finest character & physique.
(6) Honours by Standards. The competitive principle is responsible for evil. So strive to bring all the individuals up to a certain standard. In our tests, the enemies are the forces of Nature.
(7) Personal Decoration for Personal Achievements. The love of glory is the strongest motive in a savage. Civilised man should find in high principle his master impulse. Glory through standards.
(8) Heroic Ideal. The boy from 10-15, like the savage, is purely physical in his ideals. So the ideal is physical, clean, manly, heroic and leading with certainty to higher things.
(9) Picturesqueness. The effect of the picturesque is magical, sub­t­le and irresistible because it is not reasonable. Utilise the charm of titles, gay costumes, ceremonies, phrase, dance and song

Seton believed that Baden-Powell’s use of “Be Prepared” was clearly a prepar­at­ion for war; with WWI Seton resigned from Scouting. Seton believed that Baden-Powell had stol­en many of Scouting’s essential ideas from him yet had betrayed the spirit of woodcraft!

   

From left: Ernest Seton, Baden-Powell (seated) and Dan Beard

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Of course there were other environmentalists in the USA. Gifford Pinchot was appoint­ed by Pres Roosevelt in 1905 to be the first chief of the USA For­est Service. Pin­chot bel­ieved that nature needed to be protected, but that progress DID need to continue. Roosevelt himself was a be­liever in protecting nature, AND advoc­ated that young people par­tic­ip­ate in rigorous exercise. And Seton’s ideas also inspired splinter groups from the Scouts such as Ernest Westlake’s Order of Woodcraft Chivalry in 1916 and John Hargrave’s Kibbo Kift Kindred in 1920.

In 1930 Seton bought acreage in Santa Fe New Mexico, and founded the Seton College of Indian Wisdom. He taught summer courses in the arts, outdoor activities and leadership. Today Seton Village still exists and there is also a Seton Memorial Library.

Woodcraft Indians Spread Nationally

America Comes Alive