Any camper who has stayed in Camp Cherokee will remember the ear-piercing sound of the gong. While it now rings out over John Cooper Lake, it used to ring out over the South Fork, to call for a ferry into camp.
The Kia Kima Grace is the official interfaith prayer offered before meals at Kia Kima. It was written in May 2010 by Kia Kima Staffers, Adam Howard and Josh Weeden, during Staff Training Weekend held at Camp Currier.
Originally written at camp in 1926, the Alma Mater is the official camp song or hymn of Kia Kima. It is traditionally sung at closing campfires, and the original author is unknown.
The song is based off of the Vanderbilt University alma mater which is in turn based off of Cornell University's alma mater, Far Above Cayuga's Waters.
The official flag of Kia Kima Scout Reservation follows the standard design for Boy Scouts of America summer camps, which is a dark blue flag with the gold BSA emblem in the center, the name "Kia Kima Scout Reservation" at the top and "Chickasaw Council" on the bottom. This flag was first adopted in 2016.
The Kia Kima flag has two additional items that makes it stand out from other camps: a veteran insignia and four gold memorial stars.
From the Zuni language, Kia Kimatranslates as "eagles' nest" and has been in use since the camp first opened in 1916.
The camp originally was going to be Camp Chickasaw, but it was named by the first Camp Director, Edward Everett, while on a trip to the property in 1916 to prepare for the summer camp season.
Kiakima was an ancestral Zuni village or pueblo at the southwest base of Dowa Yalanne, a mesa outside of Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico, on the Zuni Indian Reservation.
