OAImages Blog

Tsali lodge has recently issued four new patches for the upcoming 2008 Dixie Fellowship (SR-5 Conclave). Thanks again to Hank Birdsong for letting me know about these.

The lodge has chosen a theme based upon the film Transformers for these issues. There are two flaps and two pocket “dangles”. It’s intended that each flap be paired with the same colored pocket patch. The pairs have similar but not identical designs.

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Since special flaps for Ordeal, Brotherhood, and Vigil members are now officially forbidden, Tsali lodge decided they needed to issue a new standard flap. Thanks to Hank Birdsong for letting me know about this.

This new flap uses the design of their most recent OBV set (S51-S53), changing the border color to blue. As an aside, it’s interesting to note that all previous blue bordered flaps from Tsali lodge (S11, S22, S33, S43) are among the lodge’s toughest flaps to acquire.

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Thanks to Hank Birdsong for sending me images of several recent issues from Tsali 134.  I’ll cover them here in a few posts.  

Tsali lodge issued two patches for their 70th anniversary this year, a flap and a jacket patch.   Both items have a similar design that incorporates elements from the lodge’s recent flaps as well as their first patch.  

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Tsali lodge recently had their Fall Fellowship.  As is customary, a patch was issued for the event.

The design is similar to 2006’s Fall fellowship patch with the border color changed from GMY to BLU.   The lodge’s totem, a drawn bow and arrow, along with the Cherokee characters for Tsali, appear prominently at the top of the patch.

The Blue Book data for this issue is:

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Last year Tsali lodge issued a jacket patch and several segments for those who participated in the lodge’s drum and dance teams. 

Thanks to Hank Birdsong for sending me images for the two newest segments for this jacket patch.  These were issued for the dance and drum teams’ championships at this past Spring’s Dixie Fellowship.

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Hank Birdsong and Garrick Smith have been keeping me up to date on the situation regarding the fakes of Tsali’s 2002 NOAC flaps.   Both have forwarded to me an image of the S42 with its fake, which was acquired from an eBay seller in British Columbia, for comparison purposes.   Click on the image to see a much larger version of the picture.

The fake is the bottom patch in the image.   As they note it is a very good fake.   It would easily fool anyone not very familiar with the patch or aware that a fake exists.   Very few of these were made, so most collectors would never have seen the real thing except for in a picture .

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This past Summer at Camp Daniel Boone Tsali lodge held an ice cream social on Wednesday evenings before their dance and drum practice and the weekly OA call-outs.   This patch was given to those OA members who attended.

The design depicts a Smoky Mountains landscape framed by a compass housing.  The lodge’s totem appears in red next to the fleur d’lis.   Thanks to Hank Birdsong for the news and image of this patch.

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It is becoming increasingly commonplace to see items of questionable authenticity offered for sale on eBay.   There are several sellers who regularly sell such items and one would be wise to be skeptical of any of their offerings.   One such seller recently sold what appeared to be the 2002 NOAC flaps from Tsali 134.

As issued by the lodge, the two flaps for the 2002 NOAC (Blue Book S42 and S43) are difficult modern issues from this lodge.   It is reported that only 40 of the S42 were issued, and 60 of the S43.   They have readily sold for between $150 and $200 each in the past.   Many of us were skeptical at the recent offering of these rare pieces by a seller from British Columbia.  We know he has sold what I call “close fakes” of North Carolina OA flaps, notably the Tsoiotsi Tsogalii 70 ZS1, in the past.   Upon examination of his auctions, I feel confident in calling these latest offerings fakes.

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Hank Birdsong sent me a scan of this fellowship patch recently issued by Tsali 134

Blue Book data for this issue is:

Tsali lodge has issued a flap and pocket dangle for the 2007 Dixie Fellowship (SR-5 Conclave) to be held this April.  The lodge has chosen a Super Mario ™ theme for this year’s conclave as both the patch and dangle show. 

You have to look carefully to find the lodge name on the dangle.   It’s written in Cherokee in white thread.

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Tsali has issued a new jacket patch and three segments designed to be worn with it.   While the jacket patch has no explictly specific purpose, the segments are all related to the lodge’s Dance and Drum teams championships.

The three segments are “Group Dance Champions 2006 Dixie”, “Group Dance National Champions 2006 NOAC”, and “Southern Drum Third Place 2006 NOAC”. Continue Reading »

Hank Birdsong recently sent me word and images of several new issues from Tsali lodge.  For reasons of clarity, I am breaking this up into three posts.

The first issue is an event patch issued for Tsali’s 2007 Winter Banquet.   Blue Book style information for this patch is as follows: