Along with the merger of the Oakland Area Council and the San Francisco Council, so too did the Order of the Arrow lodges associated with the former councils.   

 

On Sunday, December 13th of 1964, Machek N’Gult Lodge #375 of the Oakland Area Council and Royaneh Lodge #282 of the San Francisco Council held a joint banquet and business meeting at Goodman’s restaurant in Oakland’s Jack London Square to officially merge the two Order of the Arrow Lodges.  Although no name was selected at the meeting it was agreed that at first the combined lodge would be made up of two chapters, Machek N’Gult Chapter and Royaneh Chapter.  The Machek N’Gult chapter would serve the Eastbay cities and Royaneh Chapter would serve San Francisco.  At that same meeting, the Machek N’Gult lodge number 375 was retired and the Royaneh lodge number 282 was used for the new lodge.  The use of the lower number was a tradition set by National when two lodges merged.  

 

In March of 1965 the first official meeting of the new merged lodge was held on Treasure Island where the lodge rules were discussed and adopted.  More importantly the name for the new lodge was also selected and agreed upon.  The name chosen was “Achewon Nimat” which stands for “Brothers Together”.  A design for the pocket patch was also selected at this meeting.  Paul Meier Jr. (whose father was the first lodge chief of Machek N’Gult lodge in 1947) came up with the lodge name as well as the pocket patch design.  Achewon Nimat would also use the totems from each of the two earlier lodges (the Bear from Machek N’Gult and the Indian head from Royaneh) to symbolize the joining of the two lodges together.  Achewon Nimat is one of the few lodges in the Country that has two totems.

 

The first pocket patch issued by Achewon Nimat used a navy blue sky in honor of Machek N’Gult Lodge and the second patch used a light blue sky in honor of Royaneh lodge.  During the first year communication was very difficult because members from both lodges, still upset over the merger, didn’t want to speak to one another.  In 1966 the 20 districts of the merged council would be consolidated down into 10 districts.  More importantly, each of these districts would have its own Order of the Arrow village.

 

Ordeals where held at each of the camps (Royaneh, Wente, Los Mochos, Lilienthal and Dimond-O) using ceremony sites that had been previously used by the former Lodges.  The ceremony site at Los Mochos (known as Cardiac Hill) had been created by Machek N’Gult Lodge in the early 1950’s and was one of the most spectacular ceremony sites of all the camps.  The site was located across from the entrance gate at Los Mochos on a hillside overlooking the canyon.  As a Brotherhood candidate in the late 1970’s I still vividly remember the hike down the main camp road at Los Mochos and looking across the canyon to the hillside trail illuminated by the small smudge pots and the roaring fire atop the rock outcropping.  As we made our way up the trail, the giant rock was illuminated by the fire.  Mark Rickey standing in front of the Brotherhood candidates with his large buck knife drawn and pointing to the sky waiting to draw blood from the next candidate.  Each of the candidates with the look of horror in their faces as he would lay that cold knife across our hands to signify the bond of brotherhood.

 

In 1970 the lodge changed the Chapter system where each chapter would have three villages.  The East Bay took the name Machek N’Gult Chapter (which was later changed to Wekemnyan in 1977). The south bay took the name Ohlone Chapter and the West bay took the name Royaneh Chapter.  During the summer, Achewon Nimat created the Wampum Bead system to show the member’s activity in the lodge and also created the “one per life” Lodge Flap, for those who had received their Brotherhood Honor.  The following year Don Wilkinson became the first person from Achewon Nimat lodge to receive the Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor that the National Order of the Arrow can bestow upon its member.

 

The first Winter Camp Awareness Seminar was held in 1973, which has become an annual event with attendance between 300-400 scouts. In 1975, Achewon Nimat hosted the Section Conclave at Fort Cronkite in Marin County, with the theme of the conclave “Held Tightly Every Link”.  At the conclave, we took home our first ever award for the Most Indian Lodge. To help celebrate the fact that our section was the first to receive the National Standard Section Award, Dr. E. Urner Goodman, the founder of the Order of the Arrow attended the conclave and signed some of the sashes worn by our arrowmen.

 

In 1979 the first Winter Camp Awareness outdoor session was held near Lake Tahoe and in 1982 with the chapter system failing it was decided to discontinue it altogether in lieu of the village system.  Achewon Nimat would host its second conclave in 1985 at the San Francisco Presidio with the theme of “Service, Tradition, Honor”. Over 125 members attended to help the lodge in its duties and Shepard Hendrix from Live Oak Village served as the Conclave Chairmen.

 

In 1986, to help the OA program in Oakland and San Francisco, and to comply with National policy, the lodge re-instituted the chapter system. Live Oak and Golden Acorn Villages merged to form the Oakland Chapter, who called themselves Achewon Tulpe (Strong Turtle). Golden Gate, Mission Trails, and Sierra Villages merged to form the San Francisco Chapter, to be called Royaneh. The two other villages remained the same and were allowed to continue using their Indian names (Tres Ranchos was Amangi Nechochwen and Twin Valley was Suenen Paschengink). The lodge also attained the highest score among all the 69 Western Region Lodges in the Lodge Achievement Program during 1986.

 

In 1990, the lodge celebrated its 25th anniversary and also issued a replica of our original lodge flap with “25” added to it. Requirements were put on the flap, much like the National OA’s 75th Anniversary Award. 1990 Also marked the first time in 25 years that the lodge was unable to achieve the National Honor Lodge Award. This began a time of rebuilding for the lodge.

 

The annual lodge fellowship weekend known as the Mikemosin, was renamed to Achiefest in 1992.  That same year we also sent a larger contingent to the National Order of the Arrow Conference (NOAC) which was held in Knoxville, Tennessee and issued the first NOAC lodge flap.

 

In 1993 the lodge continued to grow and prepare for the Conclave and NOAC. 1994 was a banner year for us as we won our first ever Conclave Award at the Alameda Naval Air Station. The lodge had its first Section Officer in 15 years when Jeremy Davis was elected to the section. We also sent the largest contingent in the section to NOAC.

 

Like wine, 1995 was an even better year. We hosted the W3A Conclave at Camp Parks and won our second consecutive Conclave Award. We had great attendance throughout the year, and continued our streak of National Honor Lodge recognition. This was our 30th anniversary year and celebrated like our 25th by issuing replicas of the Machek N’Gult and Royaneh flaps to members who met a participation requirement.

 

1996 was the year in which we ended a 20-year Most Indian Lodge Award drought. To top off yet another great conclave, we again won the Conclave Award, making it three years straight, we had another member become a section officer, Ken Morton, and we sent another large contingent to NOAC at Indiana University.

 

In 1997 Jeremy Davis became Section W3A chief. Achewon Nimat won its fourth Conclave Award in a row and our second consecutive Most Indian Lodge Award, but lost our Indian Handball championship. During this year, 2 more members of our lodge became section officers, Rocky Fernandez and Ed Smith.

 

In the duration of 1998 through 2000 we continued with our streak of winning Conclave and Most Indian Lodge Awards. In 2000, the lodge dance team achieved its long term goal of winning the Indian Dance competition and taking home the coveted (and enormous) Dance Trophy.

 

2002 proved to be an outstanding year for the lodge. We brought our streak of winning the Conclave Award to nine straight years, when we hosted the W3A Conclave at Camp Royaneh.  This same year Dominic Pascucci was elected Western Region Chief, the first national officer in the history of Achewon Nimat.

 

In 2003, our streak of winning the Conclave Award was brought to an end when the Lodge placed third at the Conclave at Roaring Camp Railroads in Felton, CA.  Matt Griffis who was Lodge Chief in 2001 & 2002 was elected Western Region Chief, marking the first time ever that any lodge in the country has had back-to-back national officers. The lodge commemorated this event by issuing a special lodge flap.

 

In 2004 the lodge took second place at the Conclave, which was held at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville.  In the summer of 2004 the lodge sent a contingent of 10 members to NOAC, which was held at the Iowa State University. At the conference, the standing Western Region Chief resigned from his position due to personal reasons and the National Chief appointed Matt Griffis to finish the term.  At NOAC Dominic Pascucci and Matt Griffis both received the Distinguished Service Award.

 

At the 2006 conclave located at Cutter Scout Reservation, we won our 10th Conclave award and in 2009 Achewon Nimat hosted the Conclave at Camp Royaneh where we took home the coveted Conclave award for an astonishing 11th time.

 

 

Order of the Arrow Administration makeup:

       National - Regional - Section - Lodge - Chapter / Village

 

 

Achewon Nimat Villages 1986 to Present

 

Achewon Tulpe Village

 District - Peralta (Oakland and Emeryville)

 Meaning - Strong Turtle

  Mascot - Turtle

 

Amangi Nechochwen Village

 District - Tres Ranchos (San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Hayward, Castro Valley)

 Meaning -

  Mascot - Bear

 

Ohlone Village

 District - Mission Peak (Fremont, Newark, Union City, South Hayward)

 Meaning -

  Mascot -

 

Royaneh Village

 District - Golden Gate (San Francisco, Daly City, South City)

 Meaning - Meeting Place of the Tribes

 Mascot -

 

Suenen Paschengink Village

 District - Twin Valley (Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore)

 Meaning -

  Mascot -

 

Verification needed

In 1965 there were 15 chapters (one for each of the existing districts)

In 1966 the word chapter was changed to village because the word “village” sounded more Indian like.  

In 1966 there were 8 villages (one for each of the existing districts that had now merged)