1960’s Dixie Fellowship Neckerchiefs Are RARE
There are many collectors who have attempted to put together a patch collection for the Dixie Fellowship. Far fewer is the number that have tackled trying to get all the official neckerchiefs issued for the Dixie. You can take the patch collection back to 1947 if you want to go deep into the era of Area Z which preceded Area 6B where the name Dixie was born. However, if you want to collect Dixie neckers then you can start in 1965. That particular Dixie Fellowship is interesting because it also featured the first staff or host item issued by any lodge.
1965 Dixie Fellowship Neckerchief
1965 Dixie Staff Neckerchief - not the "SANTEE LODGE 116" that is missing from the regular issue.
The 1966 Dixie Fellowship hosted by Eswau Huppeday did not have a neckerchief issued even though there was a mug produced. However, the 1967 event hosted by Itibapishe Iti Hollo 188 and the 1968 Dixie hosted by Atta Kulla Kulla 185 did have neckerchiefs. There were no area conclaves held in 1969 in the old Region 6 which stretched from Florida up to North Carolina.
1967 Dixie Fellowship Neckerchief
1968 Dixie Fellowship Neckerchief
Typically these neckerchiefs were ordered in small numbers and today are much harder to find than the matching patches for the events. To give you an idea of how tough the 1965 Staff neckerchief is in the twenty-five years that I've been collecting Santee 116 I have only ever had one. I've never had a shot to get another dupe or else I would have surely pounced on it. To me that neckerchief is one of the pieces in the hobby that you only see available maybe once or twice a decade. If you have one please leave a comment to this post so we can hear you brag! 🙂
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David I think for a long time the 1973 was considered among the hardest regular issues to get. I believe the story is that they ordered just enough to satisfy the preorder and did not have many available in the trading post. The legend is something like 4 people on the Santee delegation got 1 that year. Among the other ones you’ve mentioned the 1976 is so hard I didn’t even know it existed until several years after I was collecting Dixie.
I corrected my original post thanks to a tip from Mac McLean. It was only in Region 6 that no conclaves were held in 1969. The story that was passed down to me is that this was done to get the lodges to comply with rules regarding doing native ritual dances (think ghost dance). So they took a year off to snuff that out and make sure everyone was on their p’s and q’s. I wasn’t born in 1969 so that tale is very much hearsay but I’d love to see someone else chime in!
I got my 65 Dixie neckerchief at a tradeoree some years ago. About 4 years ago, I bought a collection of Pee Dee Area Council items off eBay. No one else really paid attention to the lot. Fortunately for me, the 1965 Staff neckerchief was included.
Nice pieces!!! I can honestly say I have the 1967 neckerchief, and I’m jealous!!! I would love just the opportunity to get a 1965 regular or much less the staff one. Another couple tough Dixie Fellowship neckerchiefs include the 1973,1975staff, 1976staff, 1979staff. Very tough issues as well!!