The national scouting organization was founded in 1918 upon Latvia's independence from Tsarist Russia and its centennial was officially celebrated in 2018.

The former Scout Commissioner for Latvia, Valdemārs Klētnieks, was in a German displaced persons camp during World War II.

Following the end of the war, he came to the United States as a refugee, initially given shelter by a Boy Scouts of America official, E. Urner Goodman, at his Vermont home.

[5] In December, 1950, the Klētnieks family appeared at a Brattleboro, Vermont, church, where they spoke of their wartime experiences as exiles and recalled Christmas in Latvia, singing the songs of their homeland.

In 1990, Latvian Scouts held their fifth National Jamboree, "Renewal" and invited several other countries to participate.