School mascot controversy: Inspiration or degradation?

BOICEVILLE: The school is in the center of a controversy over its mascot.

By Paul Brooks and John Milgrim
The Times Herald-Record
pbrooks@th-record.com
jmottaway@aol.com

The Clinton Administration's top Indian affairs official this week condemned the use of American Indian mascots and logos by sports teams and addressed the controversy at Onteora High School.

Regardless of any well-intentioned reasons for using them, the mascots and logos are "offensive and dehumanizing," said Kevin Gover, U.S. assistant secretary of Indian affairs. They violate civil rights and they should all be retired, he said.

Onteora School District's use of "Indians," for example, "contributes to a culture that stereotypes Indians in a dehumanizing way," he said.

Onteora High School has been in the center of a firestorm over the school's mascot, pictured in one mural as a fierce Indian brave with a Mohawk haircut and a tomahawk in his grip.

The Onteora school board voted to drop the image last spring. But last week, a newly elected board voted to bring it back. The latest board vote sent one critic to Washington, D.C., to lobby the US Department of Education to pull Onteora's federal funding of $585,000.

Meanwhile, the state education commissioner is expected to issue a statewide ruling on mascots soon. It would affect 110 districts, including several in the mid-Hudson besides Onteora that use American Indians as mascots.

Onteora became the issue's lightning rod this summer when Joe Doan promised in his campaign for the school board he would bring the Indian back as the school's symbol. He won a three-year term in July.

"We told people coming in we were going to do it," Doan said. "They supported our actions and they are glad we did it, even in the face of the Attorney General's Office being involved and the threat of litigation from Mr. Yow."

Charles Yow, a spokesman for the American Indian Movement, has asked the US Education Department to pull federal funds from the Onteora district for civil rights violations. A decision is several weeks off.

"Joe Doan wants the right to abuse natives and abuse everyone of color and complains when someone objects to it," Yow said yesterday.

Gover, a Pawnee Tribe member, blasted professional sports teams as well. Naming a team "the Redskins" is akin to the deep south's use of the "n" word when referring to blacks.

But even American Indians are divided on the issue.

The St. Regis Mohawk nation, with a reservation in Akwesasne and plans for a casino in Sullivan County, doesn't take the same offense, said spokeswoman Rowena General. "These are symbols that have been used for generations. I guess it is how it's presented," General said, speaking of the local schools' use of Indian mascots and logos. "The local high school doesn't have war cries or use tomahawks or that type of thing. I guess it's all in presentation."

Nedra Darling, a Bureau of Indian Affairs spokeswoman, said while the St. Regis may be comfortably entwined with their community there are some schools with no American Indian ties using the imagery and nicknames. "It is a violation of civil rights to continue using the mascot imagery," she said.

The majority of Onteora students appear to support their mascot.

Laura Ferrendino, a 1999 graduate, called the controversy ridiculous. "We are not putting (American Indians) down. If anything, we are uplifting them as something we look up to."

Amber Byars, a ninth-grader, said she is part American Indian and part Puerto Rican. "I have no problem with it as long as it is not used in a derogatory way," she said. More than 90 percent of the students voted to keep the Indian as the school mascot in one recent vote.

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Copyright September, 2000, Orange County Publications, a division of Ottaway Newspapers, Inc., all rights reserved.