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In 1965, Achewon Nimat Lodge #282 was formed by the merger of Royaneh Lodge #282 (San Francisco Area Council) and Machek N'Gult Lodge #375 (Oakland Area Council) when both councils merged together. This began the history of Achewon Nimat Lodge of the San Francisco Bay Area Council.
Achewon Nimat, united brothers, took the number 282 in accordance of using the lower number when two lodges merge. With both totems, the bear and the Indian Head, Achewon Nimat became one of the few lodges in the country with more than one totem.
During the first year, communications were difficult in the lodge. At one of the first lodge executive council committee meetings, it was decided there should be two chapters in the new lodge, one on each side of the bay. With the result of much confusion, the two chapters kept their old lodge names and still operated as separate lodges.
In the summer of 1970, Achewon Nimat created the Wampum Bead system to show the member's activity in the lodge and the "one per life" Lodge Flap, for those who had received their Brotherhood Honor. During 1973, the Lodge held its first Winter Camp Awareness Seminar, which has become an annual event with attendance between 300-400 scouts. In 1975, Achewon Nimat hosted the Section Conclave at Fort Conkrite, at which it won the Most Indian Lodge Award. To help celebrate the fact that our section was the first to receive the National Standard Section Award, Dr. E. Urner Goodman, one of the OA's founders, attended the conclave. Achewon Nimat hosted its second conclave in 1985 at the San Francisco Presidio. Over 125 members attended to help the lodge in its duties.
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. Golden Gate, Mission Trails, and Sierra Villages merged to form the San Francisco Chapter, to be called Royaneh. The other villages remained the same and were allowed to continue using their Indian name. That same year, the lodge attained the highest score among all the 69 Western Region Lodges in the Lodge Achievement Program.
In 1990, the lodge celebrated its 25th anniversary. It was celebrated by issuing 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.
In 1992 the lodge renamed the annual lodge fellowship weekend to Achiefest and a larger Lodge NOAC contingent was sent to Knoxville, Tennessee. In addition to our traditional National Events patch, the lodge issued its first NOAC flap. The lodge soon after reduced the number of lodge flaps from 5 to 3.
In 1993 the lodge continued to grow and prepare for the Conclave and NOAC. 1994 was a banner year for us. We won our first ever Conclave Award at the Alameda Naval Air Station. The lodge had its first Section Officer in 15 years, Jeremy Davis. We also sent the largest contingent in the section to NOAC.
1995 was astoundingly 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 our own Camp Royaneh. Also, Dominic Pascucci was elected Western Region Chief, the first national officer from 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. However, Matt Griffis who was a former Lodge Chief was elected Western Region Chief, marking the first time ever that any lodge has had back-to-back national officers. The lodge commemorated this event by issuing a special lodge flap. Also, Indian summer was held in Asheville, NC, and the Lodge sent the largest contingent from the Western Region, and also issued a commemorative flap for Indian summer.
Throughout 2004, the lodge had many events. In 2004, the lodge took second place at Conclave, which was held at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville, CA. Also, in the summer of 2004 the lodge sent a contingent of 10 members to NOAC, which was held at Iowa State University in Ames, IA. 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. Also at NOAC Dominic Pascucci and Matt Griffis received the Distinguished Service Award.
Right now five villages make up the Achewon Nimat Lodge; they are Achewon Tulpe (Peralta District), Amangi Nechochwen (Tres Ranchos District), Ohlone (Mission Peak District), Royaneh (Golden Gate District), and Seunen Paschengink (Twin Valley District).
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