Indian love Call

A VALENTINE BANQUET FOR ANY AGE

 

Invitation

 

Decorations

 

For table decorations use small valentines with Indians on them (the twenty-five-cent variety) and Indian cutouts which may be secured in boxes or paper-doll books.

Add various colored tepees.

Assemble all of the table decorations in interesting arrangements with pieces of bamboo or other greenery.

On the walls hang bows and arrows and large red hearts with arrows running through them.

Decorate red and white totem poles with cupids and hearts.

Make the entrance to the banquet room similar to the opening in a tepee.

Have lots of greenery about the room. Decorate the stage with a large tepee and two or three small ones in the distance.

Set up an artificial campfire in front of the large tepee.
 
For background scenery use several small trees, interspersed with bamboo.
(Draw in background scenery if there are no trees available for cutting or borrow from the local Florist or nursery)
 

 

 

 

Favors

 

Draw an Indian face on one side of a small yellow orange construction paper. With straight pins or glue attach a black strip of paper for a headband. Insert a red paper feather. Mount the orange on three match sticks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nut Cups and/ or Place Cards

Make small canoes of brown construction paper. Staple these together at the ends. Fill them with nuts, mints, or candy corn. To use the canoes as place cards, print the name on one side.

 

 

 

 

Reception of Guests

 

As guests arrive, have an Indian squaw and an Indian brave greet them and give each a pencil and a program with the instructions to work on the page in the program marked "Indian Lore."

 

Prepare your own game on Indians for this or use the following:

 

AN INDIAN TERM OR TRIBE
(be as creative as possible)

       

•  Pronounced as a girl' s name (Sioux
• A boys' name and a bird (tomahawk)
• The name of a rose (Cherokee) 
•  A baby's cry (squawl) 
•   A snake (moccasin)
•  A necktie (bow)
• It sounds Irish (hogan)
• Two letters of the alphabet (tepee)
• The most (chief)
•  Made by Ford (Thunderbird)

 

 

 Menu

CEREMONIAL FEAST

Thunderbird (smoked turkey)

              Tomahawk Dressing                                                               Heap-Much Rice              

    Weeping Waters (gravy)                                                        Water Paint (cranberry sauce)

                 Indian Beads (lima beans)                                                      Golden Sun Salad

                 Ground Wheat                                                                        Big Muddy   

                                                       

                                                                        Ice a la Cherokee 
                                                                  (apple pie and ice cream)
 

 

Program Cover

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mimeograph the Cover on red construction paper. Make the inside sheets from goldenrod construction paper.

 

PROGRAM

 

Heap Big Valentine Pow Wow

 

                              Indian Lore (see reception of guest)

                              Thanks to the Great Father

                              Totem Poles (welcome)

                              Ceremonial Feasting (Let's eat!)

                              Ten Little Indians

                              Tribal Chants

                              Laughing (?) Water

                              Big Bear Runt

                              Indian Medicine

                              Indian Love Call

                              Wigwam Fires

                              Benediction

Program Details

Totem Poles.-Plan a welcome built around the idea of symbols on the totem poles and their meaning.

 

Ten Little Indians.-If this is a churchwide affair, ask the Primaries to work out a simple stunt built around the song "Ten Little Indians."

Omit this for an Adult banquet or use children whose parents are attending the banquet. Have ten children costumed in headdresses and blankets, or full Indian outfits.

Place a large red heart in front of each child. They will stand, one at a time, as they sing "one little, two little," and so on.

Then they will stoop in the order of "ten little, nine little," etc.

In conclusion, all ten stand, hold high the hearts, and sing "Heap Big Valentine to You."

 

Tribal Chants.-Group sings "Navajo Happy Song," "Fires Burning," "Reuben and Rachel" (substituting the words Brave Hiawatha and a my darling Minnehaha), "Juanita," "Love's Old Sweet Song."

Laughing (?) Water.-Ask some adults who are "ham actors" to present this stunt. Use several Juniors for the all-church affair.

Let them dress as Indians and pretend to drink water from a large clay pot. Each one takes a sip and makes a face.

After three or four go through this pantomime, the next one tastes, makes a face, and pitches the remains on the crowd. Use dry rice and no water.

Enjoy the fun as those nearby dodge what sounds to them like water as the rice shifts around in the pot.)

Big Bear Hunt.
Tell a story which suggests motions through which the whole group is to go while traveling on a bear hunt.

For example:

 

• going through high grass (rubbing palms of hands together)
• climbing trees (climbing motion)
• taking the right fork in the path (lean right)
• climbing uphill (slowly clap thighs heavily)
• running downhill (quickly slap legs), and so on. 

 

 

You can also have someone to lead in singing the action song,  "Going on a bear hunt"  

 

 

 

Indian Medicine
Have several adults come to the Indian Medicine Man and inquire about rheumatism in leg, arthritis in the arm, a catch in the back, headaches, etc.

Let him convince them that his product is good. He sells them all one or more bottles of liniment, which he claims is good for any ailment.

They go offstage drinking it and then return, skipping or laughing or doing some action to show that all is well.

Then send out a girl, who has an opened umbrella or pillows stuffed under a large dress.

She tells a sad story of trying all the diets and diet food and that she still doesn't lose.

The Medicine Man convinces her that she should try his "diet formula." She leaves with two bottles.

She comes back for four more bottles and in a brief moment returns to buy all he has. Then, she grabs his arm and drags the Medicine Man home with her announcing that she is through with (any well-known diet food).

For the last episode, the Medicine Man, supporting a new string mop with the girl's dress draped around it, walks across the stage. He says to her (the mop) apologetically,

"But I didn't mean for you to take the rest of my medicine all in one day."

For an all-church banquet let the youth prepare this stunt.

Indian Love Call.
Plan an original skit about Hiawatha as the main stunt of the banquet.

End with a solo, "Indian Love Call."

Or, instead of the skit, have an Indian maid and brave sing "Indian Love Call" to each other. (In the all-church banquet, assign this feature to the young people.)

Wigwam Fires

Line up an adult with a good speaking voice to read the Indian version of the twenty-third Psalm:

• The Great Father above is the Shepherd Chief.
• I want not.
• He throws out to me a rope, and the name of the rope is Love.
• And he draws me. He draws me to where the grass is green and the water is not dangerous.
• And I eat and lie down satisfied.
• Sometimes my heart is very weak and falls down, but he lifts it up again and draws me into a good mood.
• His name is Wonderful.
• Sometime-it may be very soon-it may be longer-it may be a long, long time. He will draw me into a place between the mountains.
• It is dark there but I'll not draw back. I'll be afraid not. For it is there between the mountains that the Shepherd Chief will be.
• And the hunger I have felt in my heart all through life will be satisfied.
• Sometimes he makes the love rope into a whip. But afterwards he gives me a staff to lean on.
• He spreads a table before me with all kinds of food.
• He puts his hands upon my head, and all the tired is gone.
• My cup he fills till it runs over.
• What I tell you is true. I lie not.
• These roads that are a way ahead will stay with me through this life.
• And afterwards I will go to live in the Big Tepee and sit down with the Shepherd Chief forever.