The Native Sons and Daughters Programs™ are the carrying on of a Native
American Indian
theme parent-child program that was started many years ago,
from an idea borne out a hunting
trip taken in the early 1920's by Harold S.
Keltner, then a St.Louis YMCA Director.
On this hunting
trip, Keltner's guide
and friend, Joe Friday, an Ojibway Indian, remarked that it is the Indian father
who raises his son, while the white man relinquishes this to the mother. Inspired
by this campfire
discussion, Keltner and Friday initiated the first tribe in 1926.
The Native Sons and Daughters
Programs™, independently founded in 2002,
continues that tradition that began so many years ago.
The Keltner and Friday
families officially support the Native Sons and Daughters Programs™.
