Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: tblake@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Thomas Blake) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Peace Sign Message-ID: Date: 13 Mar 91 08:29:13 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: State University of New York at Binghamton Lines: 19 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article conan@sizzlean.berkeley.edu (David Cruz-Uribe) writes: >>I believe that the swastica is an American Indian sign. Does anyone >>know if this is true? > >I believe it was, though I can offer only tangential evidence. In the >20's and 30's there was an honorary Boy Scout association known as the >"Order of the White Swastika". From what I know of it, it drew heavily >on American Indian "symbols" and "rituals" (in quotes since I have no >idea how authentic these were). The group used a swastika as its main >symbol (though theirs was oriented differently from a Nazi swastika). Back at the time when the war was breaking out in Europe, the "Corn Palace" in the US covered their facade with a series of "Native American" symbols. One of them was the swastika. The terrible faux-pas was pointed out to them and the swastika was removed quite swiftly. (I learned of this while touring the Corn Palace). Tom Blake SUNY-Binghamton