Complaints vs. tradition in mascot struggle

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By CRYSTAL REID / The Associated Press

While efforts to remove Native-themed mascots from college campuses continue to command a high profile, quieter struggles are ongoing in high schools, where the response is just as mixed.

Some schools, citing tradition, are resisting and insist their use is a sign of respect even if Native advocates disagree.

Actions by state officials often center on discouraging — but not barring — Native mascots, a stance that reflects pressure from some legislators to preserve the teams’ nicknames and symbols.

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The Mission Middle School sign in Bellevue features its Braves mascot. (AP)

The Mission Middle School sign in Bellevue features its Braves mascot. (AP)

Four schools in Bellevue, Neb., have their school board’s backing to keep Native nicknames and images. This is in response to the Nebraska Department of Education’s suggestion to discuss the appropriateness of using Native mascots and nicknames.

The district is about to open a new middle school, named for explorers Lewis and Clark, whose mascot will be the Scouts and feature a logo with eagle feathers and a dreamcatcher.

“We’re very careful about being politically sensitive to not only how (Natives) are represented, but how the kids act, too,” Bellevue Superintendent John Deegan said.

But a few miles away, Millard South High School students led the push to change the school’s mascot from the Indians to the Patriots, starting in 2001.

At the college level, NCAA Officials last year announced they would ban the use of Native nicknames, mascots and images at its championship events. Five schools — Catawba College (Indians) in North Carolina, Central Michigan (Chippewas), Florida State (Seminoles), Mississippi College (Choctaws) and the University of Utah (Utes) — won appeals after each showed it had the approval of local tribes to use the nickname.

Eight schools, including Illinois (Fighting Illini), still face sanctions.

Four of the violators — Arkansas State, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, McMurry University in Texas, and Newberry (S.C.) College — use the nickname Indians. The other schools still on the list are Alcorn State (Braves), North Dakota (Fighting Sioux) and William & Mary (Tribe).

North Dakota state officials recently voted to allow the university to sue the NCAA.

At the high school level, both the National Education Association and the National Federation of State High School Associations, which overseas state athletic associations, have avoided telling schools yes or no on mascot use.

“I think the general sense is it’s a local issue,” said John Gillis, assistant director of communication for the federation.

State officials tend to agree: Leave it up to the local decision makers.

In the last 25 years, more than 600 schools and colleges have changed their mascots, according to Eugene Herrod, who sits on the board of the Southern California Indian Center.

Most states, if action is taken, have issued letters, resolutions or position papers discouraging the use of symbols or mascots that are offensive to any group of people.

New York state, for example, issued a position paper in 2001, similar to Nebraska’s recent stance on the issue.

In it, the New York Education Department asked superintendents and school boards to end the use of Native mascots as soon as practical.

“I have concluded that the use of Native American symbols or depictions as mascots can become a barrier to building a safe and nurturing school community and improving academic achievement for all students,” Richard Mills, commissioner of education, said in the paper.

At least six school districts in New York have changed their mascots.

New Lebanon School Central School District changed their mascot, the Indians, to the Tigers, before the position paper was even issued, Superintendent Patrick Gabriel, Jr., said.

“The district went forward with changing the mascot out of respect for Native Americans,” Gabriel said. “But I think, as is true in many communities, the discussion was always about the view that none of this was ever intended to be an insult or disparage American Indians in any way.”

Sometimes, the encouragement just doesn’t work, Herrod said.

Deegan, with the Bellevue school district, said their schools’ nicknames — the Chieftains, Braves, Thunderbirds and Warriors — reflect the deep sense of pride the community has in its Native culture.

He said their representations of the Natives are not disrespectful.

“The original area was all settled by Native Americans, trappers and traders,” Deegan said. “There’s always a tremendous amount of respect for the Native Americans.”

But it’s all disrespectful, Fred Williams, superintendent of the Winnebago School District in Nebraska, said.

“Our board believes that the Native American person should not be represented as a mascot, because we’re human beings, not some cartoon out of a funny book,” Williams said. “It is degrading to the Indian people.”

Students of Winnebago High School — which is 98 percent Native — Williams and Frank LaMere, a Native activist, recently made a presentation to the state education department. Their message: nicknames, imagery and mascots are derogatory to Native culture.

In California, a representative of the Indian Education Association of California made a similar presentation to the Gustine Unified School District, a district in the central part of the state that named its teams Redskins.

About 20 students of the schools showed up to support their mascots.

“The students and community have great pride. For them, Redskins is a very respectable and honorable idea,” Joseph Wilimek, the district’s superintendent, said.