Administrators in some Central Massachusetts school districts with Native American mascots and logos believe they should get rid of them, but others insist such a decision should be left to their communities.
On Tuesday, Native Americans from across the state voiced their support for bills filed to ban public schools from using Native American mascots, logos or nicknames to the Joint Committee on Education at the State House in Boston because they found them to be demeaning.
State Reps. Nika Elugardo, D-Boston, and Tami Gouveia, D-Acton, and state Sen. Joanne Comerford, D-Northampton, recently filed bills to order such a ban. A similar proposal two years ago failed to become law.
North Brookfield High School’s nickname is the Indians, and Principal William Evans believes it should be eliminated.
Asked if he thought the mascot was racist, Mr. Evans replied, “I think it’s open to be interpreted that way and so, therefore, it should be changed. I don’t believe that people who have worn the Indians logo on their uniforms or that the people who have created Native American imagery in our school are doing it from racist belief. They do that because of identity, pride and tradition without the thought of, ‘Oh, is this offensive or is this appropriate or can it be interpreted as racist?’ I don’t think anybody really thought of it that way. The fact that it’s being raised in that perspective I think should give people pause and people should consider, ‘Huh, Is this appropriate?’ And I think an honest evaluation of it would be, ‘No, it’s not.’ ”
North Brookfield’s mascot is a Native American wearing a headdress.
“There’s no spear imagery of war or violence,” Mr. Evans said. “I would say that it’s a dignified image. Nonetheless, it’s certainly not indicative of the current community. Like all the other Native American nicknames, it was born in a different time.”
Mr. Evans realizes that people in town have grown attached to the Indians nickname.
“The older people say, ‘It’s been this way forever,’ ” Mr. Evans said. “‘What’s the problem now? All of a sudden, we’re racist?’ I think that would be a lot of the feedback. So it’s up to the younger people to say, ‘No, we don’t think you were racist. We think that it can be interpreted that way and so, therefore, it should be changed.’”
The athletic teams of Bartlett High in Webster are also nicknamed the Indians.
End is near?
“I’ve worked for 13 years at schools with Native American mascots,” Bartlett High Principal Peter Cushing said, “and quite honestly I think the practice needs to come to an end.”
Previously, he taught at Arlington High, which has a kneeling Native American on its logo, and served as a vice principal for the Narragansett Regional High School Warriors and as principal for the Narragansett Middle School Warriors.
According to Mr. Cushing, two or three years ago, Bartlett met with members of the Nipmuc tribe and changed its logo from a Native American with a headdress to a B with a feather hanging off the left side of it. The nickname is still the Indians, however, and the Native American in headdress is still pictured on the gym floor.
“With everything going on about bullying,” Mr. Cushing said, “with everything going on in the news media about separations that we’re facing, shouldn’t we as schools be doing more to try to bring people together? Have dialogue, have conversations and maybe there’s a common ground where these logos can be used or can be shifted to be used so that it’s not disrespectful.”
Changing a mascot could be expensive. Mr. Cushing estimated the cost of resurfacing a gym floor as $16,000 to $17,000 and of purchasing new uniforms for a sports team as $3,000 to $5,000 and far more than that for football, which has many more players. According to the bill, public schools could continue to use Native American uniforms and signage until they wear out.
Mr. Cushing will leave Bartlett this week to become assistant superintendent in Medford. Medford High’s mascot is the Mustangs.
Unlike Bartlett and North Brookfield, Algonquin Regional and Narragansett Regional are named after Native American people. The mascot name for Algonquin Regional, situated in Northboro, is the Tomahawks. Narragansett Regional is situated in Templeton and its mascot name is the Warriors. They look at their mascots as more appropriate and as a way to honor the Native Americans.
“It’s not like we’re showcasing the chief’s headdress with no history to it,” said Algonquin Principal Sara Pragluski Walsh. “There is history to Algonquin, there is history to how it’s used here.”
“The flipside is there is a whole history of what happened to the Native Americans,” Ms. Pragluski Walsh said, “and how they were treated, and not losing sight of that, and the importance of understanding their journey, and their perspective of seeing the use of the tomahawk or the use of the name Algonquin, which is a Native American tribe, could be disrespectful. So we do a lot of work here at the school on that.”
Algonquin’s logo consists of two crossed tomahawks with feathers hanging off of them.
If the state bans use of Native American mascots, Ms. Pragluski Walsh said Algonquin would adjust.
“If that occurs,” she said, “it would be a community, collaborative approach. Like we really own the Algonquin name and the application of the Tomahawk as a tool, if that time comes we will own the next name and school logo.”
When Christopher Casavant became Narragansett Regional School District Superintendent of Schools during the 2016-17 school year, the high school had two logos, one a capital N with a spear running across it, and the other a Warrior, a traditional Native American in a headdress.
So students, staff and the public were polled. Of the 2,058 responses, the Warrior prevailed 52% to 48% and was officially adopted.
“They were proud of the logo and being part of the Narragansett school district,” he said. “It was named out of respect of the Narragansett Indians who populated this area and others. People felt it was a respectful representation, certainly not demeaning.”
Mr. Casavant said he understands the concerns of the Native Americans, but he feels no groundswell of support to drop Warriors as a nickname.
“This is their identity, the folks here,” he said, “and I think they should at least have a say.”
Native Americans have had a long history in Massachusetts, which is an Algonquin Native American word meaning “large hill place.” Pictured on the state seal and flag is an Algonquin Native American with a bow and arrow and flag. The arrow is pointed down, signifying peace.
Nearly 40 high schools in the state have Native American mascots or logos, including 11 in Central Massachusetts. In addition to the Algonquin Tomahawks, the Bartlett Indians, the Narragansett Warriors and the North Brookfield Indians, Central Mass. has the Athol Red Raiders, the Assabet Valley Tech Aztecs in Marlboro, the Grafton High Indians, the Nashoba Regional Chieftains in Bolton, the Nipmuc Regional Warriors in Upton, the Tantasqua Regional Warriors in Sturbridge and the Ware High Indians.
Athol High’s Red Raiders logo is a caricature of a Native American wearing a headdress and dancing while holding a tomahawk and a spear. Athol town manager Shaun Suhoski didn’t want to speak for the regional school district, but said he didn’t see any harm in having a discussion about whether the logo needs to be changed.
Fitchburg High is also nicknamed the Red Raiders, but the mascot is not a Native American.
In the western part of the state, last year Turners Falls changed its nickname from the Indians to the Thunder, and last month Mohawk Trail retained its Warriors nickname, but removed all Native American imagery. Also last month, Maine became the first state to ban the use of Native American mascots in its public schools and colleges.
“This change is going to happen,” Mr. Evans said. “Other schools, other districts have taken it on and made the change. It’s a wave that’s moving so I expect it will happen. If it’s coming from outside the community and it’s a state mandate, I think that will actually be easier for the community to manage instead of having an internal debate which I think could be very divisive.”
Mr. Casavant feels differently about the state getting involved.
“You shove it down folks’ throats then it obviously becomes a mandate,” he said, “and it becomes harder to manage.”
Mr. Evans’s last day as principal at North Brookfield was Thursday. He’ll become principal at Easthampton High School on Monday. Easthampton’s mascot is an Eagle.
“Nobody’s offended by eagles,” he said. “They’re majestic, they’re beautiful. They don’t care. It’s a lovely thing.”