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Ernest Thompson Seton and the Origins of the Woodcraft Movement Author(s): Brian Morris Source: Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1970), pp. 183-194 Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/259751 . Accessed: 13/01/2015 17:48

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Ernest Thompson Seton and the origins of the Woodcraft movement

Brian Morris

When the nature-writer Ernest Thompson Seton died in the autumn of 1946, few British newspapers carried an adequate obituary. He had, it seemed, already passed into obscurity. It was a fate hardly deserved. In his prime Seton had gained fame as a writer, artist, and naturalist, and his books on animal life, once nursery classics, had been a dominant influence on a whole generation of young naturalists.1 He was also the founder of the first outdoor youth movement, and it is with this aspect of his career that the present paper deals.

There has always been an undercurrent of controversy about the founding of the Boy Scout movement, in spite of the in- numerable volumes that have been written on the history of the organization. Such a controversy was expressed unobtrusively in a letter from Lord Northcliffe to a friend, in which he wrote: 'Be very wary of B-P. He is not the inventor of the idea of Boy Scouts.'2 And as early as 1913 Lord Baden-Powell thought it necessary to write a 'Note for when I am Dead', explaining how he had founded the Boy Scouts. Surely an unusual course of action, unless he suspected that one day his claims would come to be challenged ? Even within the movement a doubt still lingers, and a recent (1963) editorial comment in The Scouter remarked that 'at one time there were strong feelings abroad that the Scout movement was not founded by B-P but that it was started by that famous American

1 See the biographies of such naturalists as Edwin Way Teale, Peter Scott, and Frances Pitt. Cf. W.D. Murray, History of the Boy Scouts of America (I937); E.E. Reynolds, The Scout Movement (Oxford, I942); W. Oursler, The Boy Scout Story (New York, I956).

2 R. Pound and A. Harmsworth, Northcliffe.

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of the out-of-doors Ernest Thompson Seton'. Seton himself made such claims. How valid were they ?

From the published record it seems certain that in the year I906, two men, working independently of one another, had formulated a set of broad principles on the training of boys, which, as Baden- Powell remarked, were 'practically identical'. Each foresaw the need for an out-of-school organization which would break new ground, although at this time B-P considered his scheme only as a supplementary aid to existing associations. Neither had very concrete ideas on the exact scope of their programmes, for in the field of education both were outsiders, but the conceptual frame- works they envisaged, namely a movement based on nature-lore and camping, were remarkably alike. And it was further remarkable that both Seton and Baden-Powell allowed outside pressure - arising from adolescent enthusiasm - to determine their future roles as youth leaders. Here the comparison ends, for the under- lying motives behind the promotion of the two schemes were entirely dissimilar. It is clear from B-P's pamphlet, Boy Scouts - A Suggestion, circulated to his friends in May I907, that he was distressed at the apparent decline in good citizenship among the rising generation, and that he saw his scheme as a contribution towards the effective maintenance of the British Empire, in which, according to a contemporary politician, the seeds of decay had been sown. Seton's motivation, on the other hand, was more limited and personal. The autobiographical Two Little Savages, (I902), a children's classic that contains key elements of the future scout movement, has as its motto: 'Because I have known the torment of thirst I would dig a well, where others may drink.' This is the core of Seton's approach. Originating in two such different outlooks, stamped by different cultural backgrounds, the two could never be married.

Seton related in his autobiography, Trail of an Artist-Naturalist (I94I), the incidents surrounding his first camp for boys in I900. Despairing of the destructive trespassing on his Cos Cob estate by the local boys, he initiated a week-end camp for them, hoping to turn their anti-social traits into something more worthwhile. It proved to be a profitable experiment, opening new vistas to Seton's imaginative talents. He began to formulate a programme of activities and a mode of organization for an outdoor movement for children. The first public announcement of the organization was in

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ERNEST THOMPSON SETON AND THE WOODCRAFT MOVEMENT

a series of articles for the Ladies Home Journal, beginning in May 1902, which he persuaded the editor to publish. Under the title 'Ernest Thompson Seton's Boys', they achieved wide popularity and bands of 'Seton Indians' sprang up spontaneously in many places in America.

During the next few years the movement grew, and Seton expanded his programme accordingly. To meet the demand for literature, the articles were collected and published as How to Play Injun. In I906 a seventy-one page handbook, The Birch Bark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians appeared, setting forth the aims and methods of the movement, keeping abreast with the camps Seton held annually. Under a continuous process of experimentation, one of these camps was visited by the American writer John Burroughs in July I906. Afterwards he wrote to President Roosevelt: 'Seton has got hold of a big thing with his boys' Indian Camp.... All the boy's wild energy and love of devilry are turned into new channels, and he is taught woodcraft and natural history and Indian-lore in a most fascinating way. I really think it is worthy of your attention and encouragement.'3

In the autumn of that same year Seton was scheduled to lecture in England, and had written to Baden-Powell asking him to take the chair at one of his meetings. Knowing that the defender of Mafeking would be a great drawing card, and aware of his interest in the Boys Brigade, Seton felt he would be just the man to attract the audience he required for the propagation and extension of his Woodcraft movement in England. With the letter he enclosed a copy of the Birch Bark Roll. B-P acknowledged the letter, accepted the invitation, and mentioned that he too had been working on a scheme of training for boys.

On 30 October I906 the two men met and lunched together at the Savoy Hotel. Their friendship was immediate for they had much in common - as writers, artists, and nature-lovers - and they agreed to co-operate. 'If we can work together in the same direc- tion I should be very glad indeed,' wrote B-P, and this expressed the feelings of both men. Baden-Powell promised assistance in revising the campcraft section for the next edition of the Birch Bark Roll, while in return B-P received Seton's permission to incorporate some of the latter's camp games in his forthcoming

3 Clara Barrus, Life and Letters of John Burroughs (1925).

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book. It was seemingly to be a joint enterprise. With this Seton returned to the United States to immerse himself in the work and the preparation for his next book, Life Histories of Northern Animals.

The events surrounding the birth of the Boy Scout movement are well known. After holding an experimental camp on Brownsea Island in the summer of I907, Baden-Powell brought out, the following year, his Scouting for Boys in six fortnightly parts. It met with an electric response throughout Britain. A revised edition in book form was published in May, and by September over one hundred thousand boys had enrolled as Boy Scouts; by I910 it had spread to France, Denmark, Greece, Russia, and a score of other countries. There was, as Winthrop Young pointed out, a social vacuum, and Baden-Powell leapt into it with the Boy Scout movement and its appeal to the pre-adolescent play-spirit. This had been anticipated by a correspondent to The Times who wrote (17 March I908), 'the rudiments of scoutcraft... such teaching has been tried by Mr Thompson Seton in the great summer camps of New York boys, and his pupils have gladly abandoned baseball and other familiar past-times in order to play the new game.... There is every reason to believe that the attempt to popularize scouting as a sport will be equally successful - perhaps more so - on this side of the Atlantic.' It was the product of an era rather than of a man. Baden-Powell took control of its mushroom growth, and Scouting for Boys became a best-seller; it also proved to be the spark that ignited a veritable wildfire of boyhood enthusiasm, culminating in a world-wide organization. The shape it eventually took was moulded largely by the outlook and philosophy of one man; it differed radically from the type of movement Seton had envisaged and founded.

In the early years of the new movement, however, Seton threw his energies into its foundation in the United States, became Chairman of the committee of organization (he incorporated his own movement into the scouts) and in November 191o was elected Chief Scout of America. But from the beginning he was out of step with the leaders of the movement. The evolution of scouting fol- lowed the pattern laid down by Baden-Powell. Much of this Seton bitterly opposed. In a sense he hoped to make the scout movement the main avenue for his own ideas; indeed, he looked upon it as

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merely an expansion and elaboration of his own Woodcraft Indian scheme. But in Council he was often the lone wolf. Regretting the gradual deadening of idealism and imagination, he opposed, too, what he called 'city scouting' in the programme. He stressed that the interest in flowers, wild-life and woodcraft had given way to patriotism and drill instruction. He resented especially the military and authoritarian aspects of scouting. But for a while Seton was content to devote his efforts to promoting the movement of which he was not only the nominal head in America, but also a co- founder; it was, he felt, too big for controversy.

Towards the end of I914 the mounting disagreement between Seton and the leaders of the Scout movement became an open breach. At this time the American Scout Council was striving to secure a Federal Charter which called for a governing body of American citizens. Seton, having been born in South Shields, was not an American citizen, and moreover regarded this intrusion of the nationalist element as something alien to an international movement, one which he described as 'the Junior Peace League of the World'. At the annual meeting of the scout council in February I9I5 he was discreetly eliminated from the movement; or rather, the position of Chief Scout was allowed to lapse, and he was not re-elected. He harboured his grievance in silence; then on 5 December he issued a press statement attacking the concepts of the Boy Scouts. But by this time Baden-Powell was firmly in the saddle.

What were the essential features of Seton's Woodcraft movement ? In the Birch Bark Roll Seton clearly set forth his aims; these were 'the promotion of interest in out-of-door life and woodcraft, the preservation of wildlife and landscape and the promotion of good fellowship among its members.... The plan aims to give the young people something to do, something to think about, some- thing to enjoy in the woods, with the view always to character building, for manhood not scholarship is the aim of education.... My foundation thought was to discover, preserve, develop and diffuse the culture of the Redman'.

Thus the movement was built on two cornerstones, namely outdoor life and Indian lore.

A movement based on a racial type was doomed to failure, and Baden-Powell realized this. He described scouting as 'the work

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and attributes of backwoodsmen, pioneers and frontiersmen'; but in fact never allowed the 'type' to permeate the movement. He kept the framework rather loose, the appeal universal, the organiza- tion pragmatic. Many other youth movements besides the Boy Scouts borrowed Seton's methods - and these we shall mention later - none adopted his Red Indianism in its entirety.

In 1912 Seton published a comprehensive outdoor manual, The Book of Woodcraft and Indian Lore, and a comparison with Baden-Powell's handbook clearly reveals the wide gulf between the outlook of the two men. A large proportion of Scouting for Boys is devoted to citizenship and patriotism; less than half the book is concerned with organization and outdoor life. The Book of Wood- craft, on the other hand, is free of moral instruction, and concludes with a most explicit denunciation of the form of patriotism that places itself above morality. 'Woodcraft' to Baden-Powell was only a means to an end; his book has the sub-title 'A Handbook for Instruction in Good Citizenship'. His aim in founding a youth organization is thus clearly defined: citizenship, the making of a good patriot. Seton aimed only to promote 'a scheme of education in outdoor life'. This made his movement unique, but it was also its weakness.

It is on this question of patriotism that the real rift between Seton and Baden-Powell arose, and it was the prime cause of the former's departure from the scouts. In his statement to the press in I915 Seton wrote: 'I have been out of sympathy with the Boy Scout organization for a number of years, and have endeavoured to combat its growing materialism. The movement as originally launched by Baden-Powell and myself was an organized attempt to give all our young people the advantages of out-of-door life and training.' But the leaders of the scout movement had mis- givings that ran along entirely different lines. During the first world war Seton was thought to be in sympathy with anarchists and socialists on the question whether the scouts should be a patriotic organization. Not only did he object to the Scout Hand- book including a chapter on 'patriotism'; he contended that the scout movement should not undertake to have boys pledge alle- giance to their country, but should leave them free to support their country when they thought their country was right, and to criticize it when they thought it was wrong. Such a stand was totally in- compatible with Baden-Powell's aim.

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The unique feature of the scout movement lay in its fusion of many elements, and the genius of Baden-Powell, it has been stressed, centres on bringing about this combination. These ele- ments can be outlined as follows: first, emphasis on outdoor life and camping, with woodlore, tracking, and campfire ceremonies as important subsidiary components. Second, the award of decora- tions for personal achievement, a 'badge system' linked with totemic symbolism. Third, a strong emphasis on play and recrea- tional pursuits; fourth, a degree of self-government by the children. It is important to realize that Baden-Powell can neither be credited with devising some of these elements, nor - more important - was he the first to combine them. The man who did that was Ernest Thompson Seton.

At the turn of the century the theory of re-capitulation was in vogue among child psychologists, its chief exponent being the American psychologist G. Stanley Hall, whose book Adolescence had a wide circulation. It was the application of the evolutionary theory to education, and assumed that the developing adolescent re-capitulated the cultural history of the race. These phases of human progress showed themselves as primitive inborn instincts in children. From ten to 14 years, corresponding to a period in history when primitive man discovered fire and the value of co- operation, and initially formed themselves into clans, the gang instinct is predominant. This is linked with secret codes and signs, initiation ceremonies and physical tests of courage. As a naturalist, Seton largely followed this theory. He had listed and studied human instincts - hero worship, play, the love of glory, gang instinct, etc. - and these he took into consideration when gathering ideas for his Woodcraft movement. It is interesting to note that some of these ideas found their way into the Boy Scout movement, for instance the investiture ceremony, the secret signs, the patrol totems. An interest in such ethnological trappings (which always intrigued Seton) cannot be traced in the earlier writings of Baden- Powell. It is curious, too, to find a pen sketch of the famous left- hand shake in Seton's Lives of the Hunted, published some seven years before the foundation of the scout movement; and the Birch Bark Roll contains a ten-point code of behaviour that is reflected later in Baden-Powell's concept of the Scout Law. All this, and more, leads one to ask whether Baden-Powell took certain elements from Seton's 'box of tricks' and gave them new labels.

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An integral part of both movements was the badge system, the awarding of badges and degrees to signify the attainment of set standards and progress. In Two Little Savages the embryo of this system can be seen in the chapter 'War Bonnet, Teepee and Coups', and the July I902 edition of Ladies HomeJournal reproduces many of the original badge symbols. By I906 Seton had a carefully worked-out system, with about I50 tests. Baden-Powell had intro- duced a scout badge of efficiency into the training of soldiers in I897, but until he met Seton had formulated nothing substantial. He noted in his diary after their meeting: 'Oct 30. Lunched with Thompson Seton who told me all about his Red Indian Boys Scheme. Each "camp" rules by its own council.... He gains feathers and badges by qualifying in various subjects (all outdoor) - no competition, only qualifying. Scouting practices very good.'

Baden-Powell's latest biographer William Hillcourt admits,4 in a curious sort of way, that the badge system, 'an important feature' of scouting, was 'suggested' by Seton's Woodcraft Indian honours. B-P took great pains to acknowledge having cribbed some of Seton's camp games; yet for some reason he never brought himself to acknowledge his full indebtedness to the naturalist. In Yarns for Boy Scouts (I909) he remarked, 'Mr Ernest Thompson Seton, the great observer of animals, started an association a year or two ago of "Red Indians" among the boys of America, and many of our ideas for scouting have been derived from his scheme'. It was a pity that Baden-Powell never came to disclose just what ideas he borrowed from Seton and incorporated into his own scheme.

Many writers on scouting have stressed that the patrol system is the unique feature of the movement, distinguishing it from all other training methods. If by this is meant the utilization of the gang instinct then this is patently not true. Sir William Smith of the Boys Brigade had written in I899, 'An observant student of boy-nature has pointed out that about the age of twelve, boys develop a strong propensity to form themselves into groups or gangs which exert a great influence over the boys composing them.' (Modern educationalists speak of the 'peer group influence' as if it was something new! As Professor Eisenstadt has pointed out, in From Generation to Generation, the small primary group forms the

4 W. Hillcourt, Baden-Powell: Two Lives of a Hero (London, I963).

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basic nucleus of organization of all modern youth groups.) And Smith felt the Brigade used this instinct to advantage. Baden-Powell realized this too, of course, and made the basic unit of the scout movement the patrol, a group of six to eight boys. Seton, although plainly aware of the gang instinct in boys - 'loyalty to his gang is his real religion', he was to write - was never an advocate of the patrol system, believing in an entirely different concept. Seton placed his faith in self-government, in freedom in education, and the right of children to govern themselves democratically in council. This is a far cry from the basically authoritarian patrol system, which was merely a half-hearted adaptation of Seton's self-government principle. It was a principle later developed in depth by Homer Lane and the progressive schools.

With Seton's departure from the scout movement in I915 events took a different turn; in some respects the inter-war period was the hey-day of the Woodcraft cult. But in discussing the formation and history of the three British woodcraft movements, Seton may appear to take a minor role. It should be noted however that his influence on each was, if only inspirational, nevertheless paramount. Like the Boy Scouts, they were different versions of Seton's own movement, taking over his methods and many of his ideas, but rejecting wholly his ideals and immediate aims.

During the first world war growing discontent within the scout movement inevitably gave rise to splinter organizations, and in I9I5 a group of Cambridge scoutmasters, unwilling to follow the military trend in the scouts, sought help in the establishment of a new movement. (At the outbreak of war Baden-Powell threw the scout movement wholeheartedly behind the government, its international character for the time being conveniently forgotten.) Support came from a research scientist, Dr Ernest Westlake, a Quaker by descent. Familiar with the work of Seton, he adapted the Woodcraft Indians to English conditions, discarding those sections of Seton's Indian programme which he thought un- satisfactory. The breakaway group crystallized in a new organiza- tion called the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry.

The first lodge of the Order was formed at Sidcot School, Somerset, in July I916. 'It differed from the Scouts', I.O. Evans wrote in his important survey,5 on the following points. It had a

5 I.O. Evans, Woodcraft and World Service (London, 1930). Together with

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definite philosophy (essentially that of Seton), whereas the Scouts were run on a very pragmatic basis; it has far wider intellectual and scientific interests; it was co-educational; it had self-govern- ment'. It claimed to be 'the application of the evolutionary theory to education... its object is to put an end to the conflict between instinct and occupation', and to have no 'static aims, ideals or methods'. The emblem of the Order was the shield of St George. Seton held the position of Honorary Grand Chieftain.

From the standpoint of education it was in the tradition of Rousseau, and thus in advance of the scouts. There was to be no authoritarian moralizing; co-educational and democratic, it was designed to allow integration with the school system, and it naturally attracted the support of progressive educationalists like Dorothy Revel and Theodore Faithfull. In later years it founded the Grith Fyrd Camps for young unemployed men, and co-operated with the Howard League for Penal Reform in establishing the 'Q' Camps, an experiment in the readjustment of young delinquents. As a youth movement, however, the Order never fulfilled its early promise and quietly faded into obscurity.

The Scout movement had other dissenters. 'In the war years', wrote Leslie Paul in his penetrating autobiography, 'a new voice emerged in the movement. It came from the author of many vividly illustrated articles on camping, woodcraft and Red Indianism. The author called himself "White Fox" ... His books and articles with their bold line drawings and intense poetic preaching of an open air creed, had created in the Scout movement, which lacked little in the imaginative appeal to begin with, an atmosphere of wild and contagious hope among the bolder spirits'.6 'White Fox' was the pseudonym of John Hargrave. His first book, Lonecraft, published in I9I3, is dedicated to Seton. A professed disciple of the naturalist and taking over many of his ideas, Hargrave became Commissioner for Camping and Wood- craft, and soon the scout movement came to bear the stamp of his personality; he was regarded by many, Paul suggests, as the natural successor to Baden-Powell. He too was in revolt against the estab- lished order, and attacked the scouts' war-time record. He wanted the Royal Charter which effectively prevented the movement from Leslie Paul's Republic of Children (London, I938), this is an invaluable reference on the outdoor youth organizations.

6 Leslie Paul, Angry Young Man (London, r95I).

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organizing itself democratically torn up, and all imperialistic and military passages deleted from the official handbook, Scouting for Boys. He further suggested that the Scout Council was a military cabal controlling a great educational movement. This was going too far. Like Seton, whose criticism of the scouts he had merely echoed, he was quietly expelled. In February I920 his name, as Commissioner for Woodcraft, did not appear on the list of Head- quarters staff.

'White Fox' re-channelled his energies into founding a new movement, the Kibbo Kift Kindred (an old English expression reputed to mean Brotherhood of the Strong), formally established in August I920. Its Covenant proposed among other things: land reservations for training camps and naturecraft; woodcraft training for young people; the encouragement of handicrafts; a world state and a world currency. 'It is true to say', wrote Hargrave in 1927, 'that the Kindred sprang out of the moribund Scout organization, determined to start again at a point first discovered by Thompson Seton in America about I900'.7

The spirit and atmosphere that surrounded this new movement have been splendidly described by Leslie Paul in his autobio- graphy. W.McG. Eager described the Kibbo Kift more crudely when he wrote, 'They elaborated the primitive element and de- veloped precious mysticisms which went with jerkins and long- haired politics - jibbalms and gibberish would be the rude way of putting it.'8 But the Kindred received the support of many well- known people, among them Henry Nevinson, Pethick Lawrence, Havelock Ellis, and H.G. Wells. Quite early in the history of the movement Hargrave became a convert to the Social Credit theory. 'By insensible degrees Kibbo Kift seems to have become the active wing of the Social Credit movement, dropping its more extrava- gant attributes as it did so.'9 This marked the disintegration of the Kindred.

The Anglican philosopher Leslie Paul also left the scout move- ment on pacifist grounds. For a time a member of the Kibbo Kift, he then founded in February 1925, at the early age of twenty, the Woodcraft Folk, a co-operative socialist co-educational youth

7 John Hargrave, Confessions of the Kibbo Kift (London, I927). 8 W.McG. Eager, Making Men: History of the Boys Clubs and related move-

ments in Great Britain (I953). 9 Michael Wharton, 'A Few Lost Causes', in The Baldwin Era, ed. John

Raymond (1960).

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movement, which thrives to this day. Its affinity to Seton's earlier movement is apparent in the first handbook of the organization, The Folk Trail, published in I929.

Of the three British woodcraft movements, one faded out slowly, almost imperceptibly; one burst suddenly into life, 'zig-zagged through theory after theory' only to end in confusion and frag- mentation; one has maintained its activities for over forty years. There can be no doubt of Seton's immense influence on the orientation of the outdoor youth movements. He was the first in the field, and formulated the essential elements making up the Woodcraft movement. Baden-Powell, by giving this movement a patriotic slant, made its appeal universal, and by resting its con- stitution on the pillars of established society ensured its survival. But this in no way invalidates Seton's claim to recognition.

The Woodcraft movement was an anachronism. It was at best an unwanted, illegitimate child of industrialism, a reaction against spreading urbanization. Like the German Wandervogel, its ideology was influenced by the Romantic movement, with its longing for 'community' and its emphasis on asceticism and folk tradition. Seton's movement was indeed based on the conception of the noble savage, for in the Redman he saw embodied all the cherished values. But unlike the German movement, the British and American outdoor youth organizations were to a large degree institutionalized in that they combined a nostalgia for rural life with a child-centred theory of education (also derived from Rousseau) that could not find practical expression within the normal school system. The Rousseauan educational tradition cul- minated in the Woodcraft movement, and the latter failed as a social movement primarily because it offered no solution to the ills that beset a technological world - although Seton always thought it did.10 But the fusion of the two Roussean traditions meant that the Woodcraft movement was adult-sponsored, and thus it captured the youth culture of Britain and America which emerged spontaneously at the turn of the century. The historical conse- quences of this can only be surmised.

10 It should be noted, however, that by giving children an opportunity for self-expression, in an outdoor setting and within a framework of self-govern- ment, the movement was of immense importance in progressive education, and had a limited influence on the general educational system. The writer wishes to acknowledge the help of Derek Howard, William Hillcourt, and the late Arthur Westrop in preparing his article.

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