MANY MOONS ago Running Bear and his braves would gather `round the council fire to hear the wisdom of the Elders. Sometimes they'd build a teepee, carve a totem pole or two, or maybe hang out at the village with the tribe.

Running Bear wasn't alone. In fact, he was joined by thousands of other urban, white, Anglo-Saxon middle-class kids each summer in their quest to "live like Indians," according to Sharon Wall, a York PhD history student.

"Playing Indian" was the norm at many summer camps up until the 1950s, says Wall, who's studying cultural appropriation at camps as part of her look at the antimodernist tradition.

"At the same time that camp directors were donning Native headdresses and leading campers in Indian council ring ceremonies, state administrators were targeting potlatch and sun dance ceremonies and attempting to bar 'real' Natives from appearing at rodeos in traditional dress," writes Wall in her paper, "Totem Poles, Teepees and Token Traditions: Cultural Appropriation and the Ontario Summer Camp, 1920-1950," which she presented this summer at the Canadian Historical Association in Sherbrooke, Que.

"The incorporation of so-called Indian traditions into summer camp life wasn't a true reversal of the racism against Natives," says Wall. "It was more a response to changes in Canadian society. People were uneasy with the pace and direction of cultural change. From the 1920s onward, they looked around at a world that was increasingly industrial, urban and secular. I think `going native' at summer camp was a reaction to that. Really, they were seeking a balm for the non-Native experience of modernity, as opposed to honouring aboriginal traditions."

Members Illustration: Ryan Price