All worksheets / American Cultures
Official Requirements & Fillable Workbook · 2026 Edition
This badge is built around three groups you choose yourself — one of them your own. The work is mostly getting out and meeting people: a festival, a place of worship, a conversation with someone who can tell you what their traditions actually mean. Pick your three groups first, because requirements 1, 2, and 3 all depend on them.
Every requirement for the American Cultures merit badge, word for word as published, with room to write under each one on the printed worksheet.
Do TWO of the following, choosing a different group for each:
Imagine that one of the groups had always lived alone in a city or country to which no other groups ever came. Tell what you think the city or country might be like today. Now tell what you think it might be like if the three groups you chose lived there at the same time.
Tell about some differences between the religious and social customs of the three groups. Tell about some ideas or ways of doing things that are similar in the three groups.
Tell about a contribution made to our country by three different people, each from a different racial, ethnic, or religious background.
Give a talk to your Scout unit or class at school on how people from different groups have gotten along together. Lead a discussion on what can be done to help various groups understand one another better.
Scouting America last revised the American Cultures requirements in 2006. That is the badge, not this sheet — an older year does not mean the worksheet is out of date.
This worksheet was checked against https://www.scouting.org/merit-badges/american-cultures/ in Aug 2026 and reproduces the requirements word for word. Both dates are printed on the sheet, so a copy in a binder can always be placed in time.
Requirement text is © Scouting America, reproduced verbatim. The worksheet layout and design are original to this project.
American Business covers how companies are built, funded, and held to account — free enterprise, financial statements, capital, insurance, ethics, and the laws that govern the workplace. Requirement 5 asks you to take one real business and trace all five primary areas through it, so pick a company you can actually find information about.
American Heritage starts with the Declaration of Independence in your own words and ends with your own family's story. In between you will choose from interviews, local history, film, biography, and song. Several requirements need a counselor's approval before you start — read ahead so you are not halfway into a project that has to be redone.
This badge was called Indian Lore until recently — it is now American Indian Culture, and its requirements were revised for 2026. You will study the cultural areas, research one tribe, group, or nation in depth, learn some of a language, and either visit a museum or attend a contemporary gathering. Note the word contemporary: these are living cultures, not history.
