The Order of the Arrow (OA), previously known as Wimachtendienk Wingolauchsik Witahemui (WWW) is the Honor Society of Scouting America. It was started in 1915 as a camp fraternity and became an official program of Scouting America in 1948.

Founding and development

In 1915, E. Urner Goodman, a newly hired field executive for the Philadelphia Council, was assigned to serve as director of the council's summer camp at Treasure Island Scout Reservation on the Delaware River. He believed that the summer camp experience should do more than just teach proficiency in Scoutcraft skills; rather, the principles embodied in the Scout Oath and Scout Law should become realities in the lives of Scouts. Along with his assistant camp director, Carroll A. Edson, he started an experimental honor society to acknowledge those campers he felt best exemplified these qualities, calling the program, Wimachtendienk, or "Brotherhood" in one of the Lenape dialects. The full original name for the organization was Wimachtendienk Wingolauchsik Witahemui (Brotherhood of Those Who Serve Cheerfully). It is still referred to via the inclusion of the letters "W W W" on most lodge patches.

Goodman and Edson decided that a "camp fraternity" was the way to improve the summer camp experience and to encourage older Scouts to continue attending Scout summer camp. In developing this program they borrowed from the traditions and practices of several other organizations. Edward Cave's Boy's Camp Book (1914) was consulted for the concept of a camp society that would perpetuate camp traditions.College fraternities were also influential for their concepts of brotherhood and rituals, and the idea of new members pledging themselves to the new organization. Inspired by Ernest Thompson Seton's previous Woodcraft Indians program, American Indian motifs were used to make the organization interesting and appealing to youth. Other influences include the Brotherhood of Andrew and Phillip, a Presbyterian church youth group with which Goodman had been involved as a young man, and Freemasonry.

Goodman and Edson ultimately devised a program where troops chose, at the summer camp's conclusion, those boys from among their number who they felt best exemplified the ideals of Scouting. Those elected were acknowledged as having displayed, in the eyes of their fellow Scouts, a spirit of unselfish service and brotherhood. Edson and Goodman said they "based the OA's lore and ceremonies on the lore of the Lenni Lenape Indians who had occupied Treasure Island in earlier times" and based the group's structure "on a loose interpretation of Hiawatha and Last of the Mohicans", both popular works of fiction by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and James Fenimore Cooper, respectively. The Scouts considered this move a success, and went on to repeat this pattern the following summer at Treasure Island. Those Scouts honored at Treasure Island in 1915 and 1916 would become members of what is now Unami Lodge.

In 1916, the levels of membership were Pledge, First Degree and Second Degree. Pledges were candidates who took part in the initiation ceremony similar to today's Ordeal Honor. The first degree was for candidates who completed the initiation during the October annual "member's only" meeting similar to the Brotherhood Honor today. By 1920, the term Pledge was dropped and the Degrees moved down to become First Degree, Second Degree and Third Degree.

National organization By 1921, Goodman had spoken to Scout leaders in surrounding states about their honor society, which resulted in multiple lodges being established by Scout councils in the northeastern United States.

First Grand Lodge Meeting

On October 7 and 8, 1921, the First Grand Lodge Meeting took place in Philadelphia and hosted by the Unami and Unalachtgo Lodges. The organization was ready to have a national structure. Inspired by the Freemasons, all the "known" lodges would become members of the Grand Lodge. Eight of the eleven known lodges. Edson was selected to chair this first meeting. Four committees were formed at this meeting including two to frame the Grand Lodge Constitution and re-write, provide further revisions of the ceremonies, devise insignia, and plan future development. At the end of the first day, the delegates gathered at Camp Biddle to hold a re-dedication ceremony. Officers were also elected with E. Urner Goodman becoming the Grand Chieftain (Eluwak Kittakima).

Dr. William Hinkle was part of the Committee on Ordeals and Ritual and was the primary person responsible for the re-writing of the ceremonies. According to the report of the committee, "meddlesome outsiders" had accessed to the Ritual in the Summer of 1920 at Treasure Island and therefore "it was decided to revise that both the ritual for the ordeals and for the different degrees". As a result of this report, consistent written versions of the First and Second Degree ceremonies were provided to the chartered Lodges. A Pre-Ordeal was introduced.

Changes were also brought to the characters of the First Degree and Second Degree: Medeu became Gegeyjumhet, the Supreme Chief of the Fire Medicine Man became Meteu Nischeneyit Sakima was introduced as the Senior Vice Chief Pow-wow became Kittakima, the Chief of the Fire

Sakima (Chief) and Nutiket (Guard/Guide) remained the same. A closing ceremony was added to the First Degree and the Second Degree's ceremony was re-written with the content of the ceremony remaining the same.

The name of the society was changed to Order of the Arrow. Committees were organized to formulate a constitution, refine ceremonial rituals, devise insignia, and plan future development.

The traditions and rituals of Freemasonry were a major source of inspiration for the Order of the Arrow in the first decade.

The terms "lodge" and "Grand Lodge," the earliest version of a national meeting, were borrowed from Freemasonry. Goodman joined the Robert A. Lamberton Lodge No. 487, Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania on March 5, 1918, only a few years after the first ceremonies of the Order of the Arrow took place and before the First Grand Lodge Meeting of 1921 that saw a formalization of the OA's structures and a rewrite of the ceremonies.

In the early 1930s, the Order of the Arrow agreed to change its vocabulary. As part of the agreement made by the OA National Executive Committee with Scouting America to become an official part of the Boy Scout program, the OA agreed to change certain terminology effective January 1, 1935 (although not disseminated to local lodges until April 23, 1935). Scouting America was concerned about the heavy reliance on Masonic fraternal terms in the Order. So the term “lodge” was replaced with the word “tribe”, and “Grand” was changed to “National”, the term “Degree” became “Honor”, and the term “Password” became “Admonition”. The term “Manitou”, referring to a deity, was eliminated from ceremonies, this being done to satisfy religious groups' concerns."

BSA's concerns about camp fraternities In the early 1920s, many Scout executives were skeptical of what they called "secret camp fraternities". Less than a year after the First Grand Lodge Meeting took place, concerns regarding these fraternities officially made their way to BSA. Between September 12 and 19, 1922, the Second Biennial Conference of the Boy Scout Executives took place in Blue Ridge, North Carolina. The Commission on Camping met on the first day of the event discussed the topic as visible in their report. One of the Scout Executive, A.W. Beeny from Stamford, Connecticut made "a motion that camp fraternities be discouraged in connection with Boy Scout camps". The commission was divided on the issue.Second Biennial Conference of the Boy Scout Executives - 1922 - pages 161 to 163 - https://www.google.com/books/edition/Official_Report_of_the_National_Training/YyQlAQAAMAAJ

Goodman argued against the motion:

In spite of these concerns, the WWW was welcomed with two other Camp Fraternities to be "Official Experiments" of the Boy Scouts of America. The other two groups were the Tribe of Gimogash and Ku-Ni-Eh who were active in as many if not more councils than the WWW. However, the WWW was only opened to Scouts and its leadership was composed only of professional Scouters. This appears to have been essential to the Order of the Arrow becoming an official program of the Boy Scouts of America later on.

Becoming an official BSA program

By 1929, the Boy Scouts of America had 1,181,227 scouts and scouters as members. It had proven itself to the Americans public and received the support of many in Congress and the President (President Hoover was Honorary President of BSA). It had also received the support of churches. The following Protestant Churches supported the movement: the Northern Baptist Convention, the United Lutheran Church in America and the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 1918, The Congregational Churches and Methodist Church in 1919 and the Southern Baptist Convention in 1923. Support from the Catholic Church started in 1917, when several archbishops endorsed Scouting. Jewish support was slow but also increased over the years. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) were among the first to support the new Scouting organization.

According to the 1929 Annual Report of the Boy Scouts of America: "[..]49.4% of the scout troops in America were affiliated with churches as parent institutions at the time. National and local church organizations of all faiths have given liberal support to the extension of scouting and the promotion of a more effective correlation of the scout program with the church program."

Throughout the 1930s, the Order of the Arrow worked diligently to remove the offending terminology from its early years that could offend religious groups (specifically Christian churches) and replace it with words associated with Native American lore instead. This was an essential step on the path to become an official program of the Boy Scouts of America who wished to maintain its close relationship with churches.

Every part of the program was reviewed including the obligation. An updated version of the 1921 Ordeal was issued in 1931. The most significant word change was as sacred and binding switched to as binding to satisfy religious groups objecting to sacred rituals performed by their members. The Ordeal Ceremony characters went from six to four ceremonialists. It also saw the introduction of Allowat Sakima and Kitchkinet while Meteu and Nutiket remained. A new booklet containing the ceremony was entitled Ritual for the Ordeal (first) Degree and had the words "Carefully Safeguard This Ritual" on the cover.

At the 1931 Grand Lodge Meeting, a motion was unanimously passed by the delegates to change the Third Degree (now the Vigil Honor) Symbol from a triangle to an arrowhead with an arrow superimposed on it with the totem of the local lodge on top. That totem does not appear to have ever been used or produced. The decision was reversed at the next meeting in 1933. This would become the basis of the design of the Distinguished Service Award nine years later.

In 1933, the National Council (BSA) finished a systematic analysis of various programs like the Order of the Arrow and concluded that such programs enhanced scouting. The Order of the Arrow had been assured that it would become an official program of the organization but some issues related to structures, Arrowmen who had aged out of the program, and adjustments of the vocabulary where needed. The Grand Lodge issued a document in August 1933 titled A Statement of Principles Applying in the Case of National Approval of the Order of the Arrow guided the transition. One section listed the tasks of a committee to review the Rituals of the Order to remove: "Any words or phrases, which may cause offense to religious bodies" "Any performance or expressions, which may be interpreted as acts of religious worship"