I-Tsu-La Lodge is chartered through the Coastal Georgia Council #99 of Scouting America and is headquartered in Savannah, Georgia.
The Coastal Empire Council, Scouting America and the Okefenokee Area Council, Scouting America announced a merger to form a new Coastal Georgia Council in late 2013.
The Coastal Georgia Council now serves 22 counties and boasts two fully operational camps, Black Creek Scout Reservation in Screven County and Camp Tolochee in Glynn County. The merger was unanimously approved February 25, 2014, by the executive boards of the two councils.
On May 10, 2014, two youths from Tomo Chi-Chi Lodge 119 and two youths from Pilthlako Lodge 229 came together to decide the name of the combined new Lodge. The name of the new lodge emerged as I-Tsu-La and is pronounced “it-chula,” it means “togetherness.” The totem of the Lodge is the loggerhead sea turtle.
In December 2003, the national Order of the Arrow committee unanimously decided to discontinue using lodge numbers for national reporting and registration purposes. Instead, lodges will be identified by lodge name and council number. So, the new Lode will be identified as follows: I-Tsu-La Lodge, Coastal Georgia Council #99, Scouting America.
The Order of the Arrow’s Tomo Chi-Chi Lodge 119 was named after the Creek Indian chief Tomo Chi-Chi, who was befriended by General James Edward Oglethorpe upon his arrival in 1733 to form a new English settlement (Savannah) along the Savannah River near Yamacraw, Tomo Chi-Chi’s village. The Lodge totem was the Great Blue Heron.
Tomo Chi-Chi Lodge 119, the Coastal Empire Council’s Order of the Arrow organization, was formed in May 1938 with the assistance of Bobwhite Lodge 87 from Augusta, Georgia. Bobwhite Lodge conducted an Ordeal and induction ceremony at Camp Strachan for 18 Ordeal candidates. These 18 Ordeal members and one Brotherhood member (the Lodge’s professional advisor who transferred his membership from another lodge) became the charter members of Tomo Chi-Chi Lodge 119.
Pilthlako Lodge 229 was chartered on January 2, 1943, as the Chippewa Lodge, at a ceremony at Camp Chippewa in Waycross, Georgia. The sponsoring Lodge was the Tomo Chi-Chi Lodge 119 of Savannah, Georgia. On February 4th of the same year, the name was changed to Chawtaw Lodge. The present-day name of Pilthlako (Creek Indian for “Dark Waters”) was adopted in January 1950.
Pilthlako Lodge 229 was the Order of the Arrow Lodge for the Okefenokee Area Council, composed of the 10 counties in extreme Southeast Georgia. The Lodge totem is the Pine Tree, often expressed as a trio of pine trees with an arrow and the three Ws for Wimachatendienk, Wingolausik, Witahemui.
Pilthlako Lodge 229 had been in service to Camp Chippewa from 1943 to 1944, Camp Blythe Island from 1945 to 1953, and Camp Tolochee from 1954 to 2014. The Okefenokee Area Council’s Camp Tolochee totally occupies Little Blythe Island, in the scenic “Marshes of Glynn” near Brunswick, Georgia. Pilthlako Lodge 229 occupied its own island on the north end of Camp Tolochee, consisting of ceremony areas and a lodge built in 1966.