Yokahu Lodge

History

Inspired after witnessing an Order of the Arrow Indian ceremony at the 1953 National Scout Jamboree, the desire of the Puerto Rico Council to bring the OA was evident and immediately asked the OA National office for more information about the organization. With the necessary requirements in hand, the council commended the founding of the Order of the Arrow in Puerto Rico to Luis Matías Ferrer in 1954. Having no knowledge of the organization, he sought the help of Dr. Frank H. Wadsworth, who at the time was the only OA member in Puerto Rico. The first Ordeal ceremony took place on April 10–15, 1954 at Guajataka Scout Reservation with Dr. Wadsworth acting as the first Ordealmaster. Because of this role on the first Ordeal ceremony, Wadsworth has been wrongfully recognized as the Yokahu Lodge's main, or sometimes only, founder throughout its history with not enough credit given to Luis Matías Ferrer. After the establishment of the Order of the Arrow in Puerto Rico, the Lodge was named Yukiyú and later Ricardo Alegría proposed to change the name to Yokahu, which both are basically the same variant. In the beginning, the Lodge literally translated the ceremony scripts from the English language and used American Indian attire, but decided later to slightly modify the ceremonies by translating the scripts and using Taíno-inspired attire to reflect the island's heritage. Yokahu Lodge is the only Order of the Arrow Lodge that uses Spanish as its main language.

Chapters

The Lodge is divided into six chapters that are organized based on the geographical regions on the island. The chapters, like the Council's districts, are named based on the Taíno name of each of the chapters' base area. The chapters and the cities belonging to each one (and base cities denoted in bold) are:

Headquarters

The Lodge's office headquarters, where sectional and national business are managed, are within the Puerto Rico Council while field headquarters are at Guajataka Scout Reservation, considered as the official home of Yokahu Lodge. Most of the Lodge activities are celebrated in the camp and for years the Order has given service to the facilities. The OA has its own campsite, called "The Cabin", which occupancy has been discontinued due to structural damages, but still remains standing. In the past, the Paquito Joglar campsite area was considered the official gathering place for the Lodge, later becoming a campers area due to the need of space for the many Scouts that attended camp.

Executive

Every new Executive Board of Yokahu Lodge assumes office effective every January 1 until every December 31st. Any youth Arrowmen (until the age of 20) of any level (Ordeal, Brotherhood, Vigil Honor) is eligible to run for a position in the Executive Board. The Executive Board of Yokahu Lodge is composed of:

Committees

Committee chairmen are appointed by an Executive Board member in charge of its supervision. The operational committees are:

Main

There are four main activities in the Lodge's calendar. The Retorno is celebrated on a weekend between March and April; its purpose is to reunite the Lodge's Arrowmen to lay out and distribute the year's activities and the chapters in charge of running each one, it also serves as a chance to meet the new Lodge Executive Board for the year. Halfway through the year, the Lodge celebrates its high adventure activity between August and September, in order to challenge each Arrowmen's outdoor skills. In October, the Lodge celebrates its Guateke (which is from the Taíno language, meaning gathering), a fellowship event in which chapters participate in various competitions such as ceremony, regalia, dialogue, sports, triathlon and trivia; the highlight of the Guateke is the youth nominations for the positions of the Lodge Executive Board during the Fall Assembly. Finally in December, the annual Convention serves as the conclusion of the Lodge's year, similar to a "Court of Honor", in which different recognitions and awards are handed out based on service during the year and the youth elections for the Executive Board are held.

Other activities include the start-of-the-year Lodge Leadership Seminar followed by the First Executive Meeting, both taking place the same day early January, the Second Executive Meeting between March and April, the third and final Executive Meeting between late August and early September and a service project.

Inductions

Inductions are celebrated four times a year, usually once a month from May to August. The induction weekends are called Ordeal/Bros, which began in 1993, since both Ordeal and Brotherhood ceremonies take place at the same time. The Vigil Honor is celebrated as an independent activity from Saturday evening to midday Sunday on the weekend of Thanksgiving, strictly open to Vigil Honor members and candidates.

2008 Section Conclave

The 2008 NE-2A Section Conclave took place at Guajataka Scout Reservation, marking the first time that the Yokahu Lodge hosted such event and the first to be held outside the United States. The event had a record attendance of 500 Arrowmen including the National Chief and Vice-Chief, Northeast Region Chief and many Section Chiefs. On this Conclave, the Section changed from NE-2A to NE-5A with the Section losing and acquiring other Lodges. On this Conclave, a Yokahu Arrowman became the second Puerto Rican to become a Section officer, Vice-Chief.

2016 Section Conclave

Yokahu hosted the NE-5A Section Conclave on August 2016 at Guajataka Scout Reservation for the second time in its Lodge history. More than 350 people from New Jersey and Puerto Rico attended the event, including the Order of the Arrow's National Chief, Northeast Region Chief and NE-5B Section Chief (also, NE-5 Section Co-Chief). On this Conclave, the outgoing Section Chief from Yokahu Lodge (the third Puerto Rican to become a Section officer) passed on the position to another fellow Yokahu Arrowman elected as Section Chief of NE-5A and, subsequently, NE-5 Section Co-Chief. He became the fourth Puerto Rican to become a Section officer, the second to be Section Chief and the first back-to-back for the same position for Yokahu Lodge. This Conclave marked the final one as Section NE-5A before its merger with NE-5B to from one NE-5, acquiring an additional six Lodges to the five that NE-5A already had.

National Leadership Seminar

In 2002, Yokahu Lodge hosted the Order's NLS for the first time with visits from the National Chief and Northeast Region Chief. Yokahu again hosted the NLS for their membership's attendance in October 2014 and included visits from the Northeast Region Chief as well as the National Vice-Chief.

Awards

The Lodge has its own recognitions for distinguished service to the Lodge. The Cemí de Bronce (English: Bronze Cemí) is awarded to youth and the Premio del Alegre Servicio (English: Cheerful Service Award) or the Three W's for short, which consists of three pins with the letter W on each one, is awarded by adults. Like the Vigil Honor, these awards cannot be earned by a set of requirements, but instead are awarded on a specific number of requirements set by a recognitions committee composed of youth Arrowmen. These awards have their own quota and are given during the Convention. Currently the Lodge has only one recipient of the Distinguished Service Award, Dr. Frank H. Wadsworth, awarded in 1965, who is an active participant in Lodge activities.

The Lodge was recipient of the Journey To Excellence Gold Award for the first time in 2013.

Media

Yokahu Lodge publishes a newsletter called El Cemí, named after its totem, four times each year on March, September, October and December. On January 2012, the Lodge started their Facebook page and Twitter account, integrating the era of social media to their communications, establishing a more efficient interaction with their Arrowmen. On January 2013, they integrated Instagram to their social media. The publication, social platforms and email are all managed by the Chairman of the Communications Committee.