(AgapePress) - Traditions that offend American Indians are out at 4H summer camps in West Virginia.

Children will stop painting their faces, wearing feather headdresses, chanting a tribal cheer, and using "stereotypical motions and dances" next year. The changes were announced by the West Virginia University Extension Service, which sponsors 4H clubs in the state.

University president David Hardesty had ordered a review of the traditions in April, after one parent complained about some of the practices. A 40-member review committee studied the issue for six months and deemed several of the activities "offensive" and "stereotypical."

West Virginia U.S. Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito says she originally thought this was political correctness run amok.

"The 4H has a long and storied tradition in our state of West Virginia, and has led numerous youth to a wonderful growing-up time," Capito says. "So I think that the way they studied this and the conclusions they came to was probably the most sensitive way to deal with this issue."

Capito confesses she was concerned the review would go way overboard. "I think the main thing that seems to have been taken away are the feather headdresses -- which to me are not offensive at all, but maybe some of the 'barbaric' aspects that we might [attribute to] American Indians might be one of the things that would be dropped -- the war-like whooping and those kinds of things.

"I think we'll find we're going to slip into a good medium here on the best way to handle this," the Republican lawmaker says.

Quite a few Indian traditions will continue at 4H camps, including joining the Mingo, Cherokee, Delaware, or Seneca tribes.

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