OAImages Blog

This is the sixth of an ongoing series of articles about patches issued by the lodges of the national officers of the Order of the Arrow.

I intend to update these posts over time to add any patches I may have left out as well new items for current and future officers.

Previous articles can be found at these links.

• Part 1: Lodge of the National Chief
• Part 2: Lodge of the National Vice Chief
• Part 3: Lodge of the Central Region Chief
• Part 4: Lodge of the Northeast Region Chief
• Part 5: Lodge of the Southern Region Chief

Finally we turn to the Western Region.   This, too, is a rather short list with flaps for this region’s chief not becoming commonplace until 2000. 

There were also a few curiosities here.  

The Western Region Chiefs seem to be concentrated in a few lodges.  There are two instances of lodges with back to back region chiefs (Wipala Wiki 432 and Achewon Nimat 282).  In another case two chiefs from the same lodge served with only one year between them (Ashie 436).   Two Wiatava brothers were region chief during the late 1990s.  There were also two region chiefs from Cahuilla 127 during the 1980s, but the lodge didn’t issue any patches for either of them.   

There was also one chief who resigned his office.

1989:  Michael Southall, Ashie 436. This is the first lodge I am aware of that issued a patch for a Western Region Chief from their lodge.   The S23 was issued to honor Mr. Southall.

1991:  Louis Monville, Ashie 436.   Only two years after Mr. Southall’s term another Ashie brother was elected Western Region Chief.  Ashie issued their S29 for Mr. Monville.

1994:  James Lewis, Siwinis 252.  This year’s region chief was honored by Siwinis lodge on their S27, which also served as their 1994 NOAC flap.

1996:  Tony Fiori, Wiatava 13.  Wiatava lodge modified their standard flap of the day to create their S19, in honor of this year’s region chief.

1999:  Hayato Nakawatase, Wiatava 13. Only three year’s after Tony Fiori’s term as region chief, another brother from this lodge was given this honor.  Wiatava’s S27 was issue for Mr.Nakawatase.

2000:  Cameron Mulder, Tsisqan 253. Tsisqan lodge modified their standard flap from this time to create the S33 in honor of Mr. Mulder’s service.

2001:  Josh Gana, Wa-La-Moot-Kin 336. This lodge also modified one of their standard flap designs to create the S36 in honor of Mr. Gana.

2002:  Dominic Pascucci, Achewon Nimat.  Achewon Nimat lodge didn’t issue any patches speficially for Mr. Pascucci.  However, when Matt Griffis, also from Achewon Nimat lodge, was elected his successor the  S31 and S32 were issued to honor the two chiefs and their consecutive terms.

2003:  Matt Griffis, Achewon Nimat 282.   After Mr. Griffis’ election Achewon Nimat lodge issued their S31 and S32 to pay homage to both the 2002 (Dominic Pascucci) and 2003 Western Region Chiefs.  

After Tim Wallace’s resignation in 2004, Griffis was appointed to serve out the remainder of that term.  To my knowledge this highly unusual situation was the first time, since the change to all youth officers, that a national level officer served in a position for more than one term.

2004:  Tim Wallace, Es-Kaielgu 311.   Es Kaielgu lodge issued their S20, as the home of the 2004 Western Region Chief.    The bottom pieces on this lodge’s 2004 NOAC sets –  S21+X21, S22+X22 — also claim this status.  Tim Wallace resigned his office, unexpectedly and for personal reasons, on the eve of that year’s National Order of the Arrow Conference (NOAC).  

Official sources create some confusion here.  Even though he is not mentioned on the OA’s Western Region website, and references to him on the National OA site are hard to find, he was the duly elected Western Region chief at the December 2003 planning meeting.

Matt Griffis was appointed to serve again as Region Chief for the remainder of the term. 

2005:  Ross Armstrong, Tannu 346.   Tannu lodge issued two flaps, listed in Blue Book as the S61 and S62 for the 2005 Western Region Chief.  Neither are yet shown on this site.

2006:  Kieran Thompson, Wipala Wiki 432.   Three rather attractive flaps were issued by Wipala Wiki lodge for Mr. Thompson’s term of office.   None are yet listed in Blue Book but I have labelled them as S115? through S117? on this site.

2007:  Chad Wolver, Wipala Wiki 432.  Like Achewon Nimat lodge a few years ealier, Wipala Wiki had two consecutive region chiefs from their lodge.   The flaps were issued for Mr. Wolver.  None are yet listed in Blue Book, but are shown on this site as the S134? through S136?.  The lodge also issued two odd shaped patches in the shape of a bear. 

One will be listed as a jacket patch and the other as an “X”.   Neither are on this site yet.

If anyone can correct or add to this list, please let me know either by email or by adding a comment to this post. Thanks.

Additional Credits and Thanks:

• James Arriola, Bill Chin, Jeff Posey and Steve Silbiger for providing their spreadsheet of known national officer patches.
• Ray Czech, Ray Kell, Mac McLean, David Scocca, and any other members I have forgotten of the arrow-l and patch-l listservs for providing addtional information, comments and corrections.