Every year for ten years I have traveled in the fall
for the purposes of recruiting students to the university or college where I work. I've worked in admissions & recruitment at NC State now for over seven years. I've never been more acutely aware until this year of how many high schools still use Native American imagery or symbols as their mascots. Some people I've discussed this with are often of the opinion that they don't understand why it's offensive and why American Indians don't take it as a compliment to be commemorated as a symbol of strength and as strong warriors. Yet many American Indians will tell you that it's offensive and hurtful and that it dishonors them. My own high school in Pennsylvania were the Millersburg Indians and still are. I was a cheerleader throughout all of middle and high school and can remember the words to some of our cheers making specific references to Indians. Looking back on it now, I can see how these cheers could be personally taken offensively; especially when being spoken by non-Indians who have no idea what it means or meant to be Indian in the US and to have historically had your ancestors' land, language, and culture stripped of them and their loved ones killed.....
So in my travels this year to Pennsylvania specifically, I noticed many high schools in the western and eastern parts of the state whose high school mascots are still Indians, Warriors, Redskins, etc...... at the time of these travels I didn't yet have an iphone and my dinky little flip phone wouldn't take good, share-worthy photos so I was unable to capture what I was seeing in these high schools but I did come across this transcript (below) this week as I was reading applications for New Jersey. I'll admit that this is one blog I started writing in my head weeks ago but realizing how much extra research it would take I didn't proceed with writing the blog. I am now but am not fully satisfied that I don't know the history of this land. I don't know which tribes once occupied this region or if they occupied it at all. What is the reason so many schools in this region still have Indian mascots? Are there still American Indian populations inhabiting this land? I did some online searches but didn't come up with much to answer these questions. Perhaps our final Call To Action presentation on Monday will have insight on this topic or I can at least ask if they've seen research on this or government mandated motions to change names. I know there's been a concerted effort in North Carolina to change the names of many schools' mascots. I'm not fully aware of who mandated these changes but I'm certain that the eight tribes represented in North Carolina were vocal in pressing forward on making these changes. I'm sure even more mascots have been changed by now but in 2010 State Advisory Council on Indian Education Report to the NC State Board of Education, Appendix A on page 109 indicates that "in 2002, 73 North Carolina Schools in 43 school districts had an American Indian mascot or imagery. As of May, 2010, 33 NC schools in 20 school districts were using American Indian mascots. This is a decrease of approximately 59% over an 8-year span." This is great progress for American Indians in North Carolina! I'm just wondering why it isn't being done in other states too? Perhaps it is and I'm just not aware of it? Please feel free to share articles or federal mandates I may be unaware of. Thank you!
for the purposes of recruiting students to the university or college where I work. I've worked in admissions & recruitment at NC State now for over seven years. I've never been more acutely aware until this year of how many high schools still use Native American imagery or symbols as their mascots. Some people I've discussed this with are often of the opinion that they don't understand why it's offensive and why American Indians don't take it as a compliment to be commemorated as a symbol of strength and as strong warriors. Yet many American Indians will tell you that it's offensive and hurtful and that it dishonors them. My own high school in Pennsylvania were the Millersburg Indians and still are. I was a cheerleader throughout all of middle and high school and can remember the words to some of our cheers making specific references to Indians. Looking back on it now, I can see how these cheers could be personally taken offensively; especially when being spoken by non-Indians who have no idea what it means or meant to be Indian in the US and to have historically had your ancestors' land, language, and culture stripped of them and their loved ones killed.....
So in my travels this year to Pennsylvania specifically, I noticed many high schools in the western and eastern parts of the state whose high school mascots are still Indians, Warriors, Redskins, etc...... at the time of these travels I didn't yet have an iphone and my dinky little flip phone wouldn't take good, share-worthy photos so I was unable to capture what I was seeing in these high schools but I did come across this transcript (below) this week as I was reading applications for New Jersey. I'll admit that this is one blog I started writing in my head weeks ago but realizing how much extra research it would take I didn't proceed with writing the blog. I am now but am not fully satisfied that I don't know the history of this land. I don't know which tribes once occupied this region or if they occupied it at all. What is the reason so many schools in this region still have Indian mascots? Are there still American Indian populations inhabiting this land? I did some online searches but didn't come up with much to answer these questions. Perhaps our final Call To Action presentation on Monday will have insight on this topic or I can at least ask if they've seen research on this or government mandated motions to change names. I know there's been a concerted effort in North Carolina to change the names of many schools' mascots. I'm not fully aware of who mandated these changes but I'm certain that the eight tribes represented in North Carolina were vocal in pressing forward on making these changes. I'm sure even more mascots have been changed by now but in 2010 State Advisory Council on Indian Education Report to the NC State Board of Education, Appendix A on page 109 indicates that "in 2002, 73 North Carolina Schools in 43 school districts had an American Indian mascot or imagery. As of May, 2010, 33 NC schools in 20 school districts were using American Indian mascots. This is a decrease of approximately 59% over an 8-year span." This is great progress for American Indians in North Carolina! I'm just wondering why it isn't being done in other states too? Perhaps it is and I'm just not aware of it? Please feel free to share articles or federal mandates I may be unaware of. Thank you!
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