  There is growing evidence that some star-forming galaxies at z>1 are
characterized by high efficiencies and specific star formation rates. In the
local universe, these traits are shared by ``active'' Blue Compact Dwarf
galaxies (BCDs) with compact and dense star-forming regions. The Spectral
Energy Distributions (SEDs) of these BCDs are dominated by young massive star
clusters, embedded in a cocoon of dust. In this Letter, we incorporate these
BCD SEDs as templates for two samples of high-redshift galaxy populations
selected at submm wavelengths. Because of the severe absorption of the optical
light, the featureless mid-infrared spectrum, and the relatively flat radio
continuum, the dusty star-cluster SEDs are good approximations to most of the
submm sources in our samples. In most cases, the active BCD SEDs fit the
observed photometric points better than the ``standard'' templates, M 82 and
Arp 220, and predict photometric redshifts significantly closer to the
spectroscopic ones. Our results strongly suggest that the embedded dusty star
clusters in BCD galaxies are superior to other local templates such as M 82 and
Arp 220 in fitting distant submm starburst galaxies.
