Cuyahoga Valley Native Sons and Daughters (CVNSD) is the Brecksville and Broadview Heights branch of the National Native Sons and Daughters Organization. Native Sons and Daughters, founded in 1926, has a Native American Theme. For this reason, terms such as chief, longhouse and tribe are used throughout the program.
When your child joins CVNSD, he or she will be assigned a tribe. A tribe is a group of children who are in the same grade and are of the same gender. The tribe will get to know each other during tribe events and campouts. New tribes are formed in kindergarten. The tribe remains until the kid finish 4th grade. At that point the tribe disbands and the children who were in it can continue as Pathfinders.
Older kids who join CVNSD will be assigned to an existing tribe that fits the grade level and gender of the child. The head of each tribe is a chief. The chief is a father of one of the tribe children and is responsible for communicating with the rest of the tribe members about upcoming events. Generally, the chief position should be rotated from time-to-time so that different dads in the tribe get to take on the chief role.
CVNSD is run by normal members, just like you. The members who have an official role in the organization are called “Officers”. Okay, the Officers have funny names like:
This is simply in keeping with the Native American theme that the organization was founded on in 1926.
Nothing is written in stone. Chief positions can be created as need arises. For example, before we rebuilt the website, the entire management of the site fell onto one “Information Chief”. In the early 2000’s this may have been sufficient, but managing an online presence is a big undertaking today. For that reason, we broke the Information Chief position into several other chiefs that all help with various parts of maintaining a web presence.
Your involvement:
We really need everyone to be involved. Being involved is not a huge time commitment. Yes. There is some time involved, but it isn’t daunting. It’s flexible to the needs of your life. Most of all, it’s very rewarding to volunteer and help your own community through such a wonderful program. You can volunteer a little time or a lot. We request that anyone interesting in helping a little, attend the monthly Officer Meetings held at the London Pickle Works on the first Wednesday of each month at 9:00pm. You’ll learn about simple ways you can help.
The Native Sons and Daughters Program is a Native American themed organization. Cuyahoga Valley Native Sons and Daughters is the branch of the organization in the Brecksville/Broadview-Heights area. Because of the Native American them, you’ll notice that it is organized into Native American themed parts. There are tribes with chiefs, and so on.
As a new member, you and your kids would join a tribe. Each child will be assigned a tribe that corresponds to his or her grade level and gender. The chief of the tribe is a dad who volunteers to oversee, organize and communicate information about tribe events and other Longhouse events to the rest of the tribe.
In addition to tribe chiefs, there are other chiefs at the Local Longhouse level. The Longhouse is the group of all of the tribes within CVNSND, and these chiefs have a volunteer role within the CVNSND organization. They include roles such as Longhouse Chief, Assistant Longhouse Chief, Property Chief, T-Shirt Chief, and many others.
Additionally, at the national level, there are chiefs, too. You can read a full history of the national organization here: http://www.nationallonghouse.org/about-us/.
CVNSD is the Brecksville and Broadview Heights group of the National Native Sons and Daughters Organization. Because of the Native American Theme, titles such as chief and groups such as tribe are used.
There are two kinds of chiefs: A tribe chief and an officer.
Tribe Chiefs
A Tribe chief is a dad who is considered to be the head of the tribe. He will be in charge of communicating information from the longhouse and helping to manage the tribe’s activities.
Officers
Officers are members who volunteer at the longhouse level. Many functions must happen within the organization for it to work properly. Planning events, accounting for the finances, coordinating campouts, storing property, selling t-shirts, maintaining the website, managing social media, and creating videos are just a few of the many roles within CVNSD. Each of these roles has a chief (or officer) who is tasked with managing that role. For example, the T-Shirt Chief orders and sells t-shirts. The Property Chief stores and tracks CVNSD property.
Anyone can volunteer to become a chief or officer. We could certainly use the help!
CVNSD is actually just one part of a much bigger organization. The National Native Sons and Daughters Program has “longhouses” all over the country. So this begs the question, “What is a longhouse?”
A longhouse is the local group of all of the tribes within Cuyahoga Valley Native Sons and Daughters. There are ten tribes and one Pathfinders group within the longhouse. These are:
Each tribe within the longhouse will choose a name when they form during their kindergarten year. The tribe will exist until the kids within the tribe complete fourth grade. Then they may choose to continue and become Pathfinders. If a child is older, he or she would be placed in the tribe that is their gender and the closest match to their current grade level.
When you here “longhouse”, just think of all of the tribes combined. You might here about an event being a “Longhouse Event.” That would mean the event would apply to all tribes.
The National Native Sons and Daughters program has existed for nearly a century. A Native American theme was chosen because of how nature and family are perceived within Native American cultures. This helps drive educational opportunities about other civilizations in the world and throughout history.
CVNSD sometimes gets compared to Cub Scouts. However, there are very big differences. The similarities are that both Cub Scouts and CVNSD are for helping kids and families participate in activities that involve nature and outdoor activities.
CVNSD is big. We have hundreds of families in a very small location. This means you are likely to get to know your neighbors and kids who attend your schools.
CVNSD is a flexible program. You don’t feel left behind if you cannot attend something. There are no merit badges. You can a patch for attending events, but it isn’t a scorekeeping badge. It’s just for fun, like everything in CVNSD.
For some, Cub Scouts is a great fit. It’s a great organization with a lot of history. The Sons & Daughters program has also survived for almost 100 years, and it’s appeal has always been the same. Families making memories together.
CVNSND is a part of the National Native Sons and Daughters. The organization has a long history, which you can read all about via this link: http://www.nationallonghouse.org/about-programs/basic-info/brief-history/.
