It seems that that old PC consideration was at play. The lack of clothing excluded the Latino and Muslim kids. It is obvious to me that the Latino and Muslim kids and/or parents excluded themselves, up until the point of the nudity ban. Now, everyone has a religious and mostly cultural edict imposed on them. If they are teaching older, or new to them, values and awarenesses to urban/suburban kids, then naturism should be a part of it. HArummph!
It was Quakers who demonstrated in protest in England nude. People who lived in nature and intimately with it, bathed in rivers, lived in small, often one room, log cabins as they homesteaded, didn't have the sense of over inhibited behavior. There is a blanket of Victorian era rewriting of history, I suspect. The change in culture at the camp being written about is unusual. It has not been recorded generally in other places in our culture. The change happened and after a while it was assumed that things have always been like that.
The "playing Indian" thing was offensive to me, too. There is an attitude that people are stealing Native American culture. I see that as mostly bunk. For example, a Native American practices in a very structured frame of ritual. White kids, and Rainbow Family, etc. have adapted aspects of another culture, another spiritual system. These practices have value. It is no more unreasonably for a non-NAtive to adapt NAtive practices than for a Native to adapt Christianity, or anything else. We are free to try out any religious or spiritual practice, adapt it or reject it, piecemeal or wholesale. Human beings have been doing these things for millennia. These things change like language changes, especially without a written language. Playing Indian creates incorrect impressions of what Indian does, but throwing the babay out with the bath water is going too far. Seven generations ago, I have a Lokota medicine chief as an ancestor. I believe that it would be foolish to say that the current generation would produce something the same. An illiterate man who lived in the plains of the 1800's just couldn't think and relate like a man living on a reservation today. It is the nature of things to change and we often ignore that much of what is hasn't always been like that. Look at the Boy Scouts, The Weblo designation, the many Native American connotations and celebration.
Cripe, I have a sweat in my backyard. It is used adapting any manner of traditional practices, Nordic, Native American, etc. There is what comes naturally as well. I relate to nature in my own way, as did all of the multitudes of Native tribes. Passing a feather at a circle often works better than Robert's Rules. DF and I have experimented with vision quest, which is in many cultures and also happens naturally. We have used four directions for refection, Actual Native songs are song which are lead by those trained by elders, but we are not playing Indian. There is something expressed and heartfelt. You are to sing only four songs, but who really cares, who isn't wrapped in tradition. I am told that you don't use a traditional native sweat nude, that that is disrespectful. I suspect that that is an authentic tradition originating only in the last 150 years, but I put that aside. We use it nude and if someone finds that disrespectful then they may wear pants, or cover their sick shame in any way. Just don't take my spiritual relationships away from me, ie. be naked to relate infinitely better.
Stealing names, misrepresenting a culture, racism, okay, there are limits.
There are organizations that recreate historic culture to explore history, roots, and live. Medieval cultural knowledge especially sword fighting has been growing, not because of book learning, but because active hands-on use of the weapons teaches. Active role-play teaches social schemes. There is a place for role-play. That is how kids learn, by doing. Playing Indian, or playing white guy, that's okay, but it is best to get some authentic resources as foundation. It is best to teach respect for the diversity.
Looks like a great camp concept has some poor leadership, as of late.
Jbee
