The New York State Board of Regents has voted to officially ban school districts statewide from using Indigenous images and reductive names for school mascots and sports teams. Affected schools have until the end of the school year to show concerted efforts to rebrand and must comply with the ban by June 30, 2025.
Last November, National Education published a letter indicating that the state would prioritize and enforce this decision by 2023. Apparently the state has been trying to phase out the use of these names and images since 2001but dozens of school districts, including 11 Long Island high schools, have yet to comply.
While many, but not all, schools with team names such as “Indians”, “Redmen” and “Tomahawks” have already voted to adopt new names themselves or retire their mascots, some still use terms ambiguous ones such as “Braves” and “Warriors” accompanied by sideways caricatures of native men with feathered war bonnets, red skin tones and aggressive expressions.
“Indian mascots and stereotypes present a misleading image of Indian people and fuel historical myths that have been used to whitewash a history of oppression,” the National Congress of American Indians said on its website ahead of a national campaign to remove harmful and derogatory images of Indigenous peoples from educational environments.
Long time research also indicates that the use of Indigenous mascots and team names, which lean towards negative and dehumanizing stereotypes of surviving Indigenous populations, has a negative impact on Indigenous students as well as their non-Indigenous compatriots who end up perpetuating the ideas misconceptions and stereotypes.
And yet parents and alumni of school districts adopting new mascots in deference to the research and demands of local Indigenous people accuse the government of “erasing history” and “further disrespecting Native Americans.” Many non-native citizens believe that mascots honor natives, commemorate them, and make them a point of pride and school spirit and accuse the state Department of Education of wasting taxpayer dollars on non-natives. problems.
In an interview with HyperallergicLong Island-based artist Shinnecock and 2021–22 Hyperallergic Jeremy Dennis, a conservative, said if this is the best people can do in terms of representing Native Americans in schools, “there’s clearly a lot of work to be done.”
“They love our culture as long as it’s in the past,” Dennis continued, referring to outdated portrayals of Indigenous men as belligerent and violent. “Parents who are suddenly embarrassed by this so-called ‘erasure of history’ probably could have done more to help us.”
Dennis spoke about New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s January decision to veto the law on unmarked graveswho allegedly protected unmarked Native American burial sites from unintentional excavation, as well as his move to Montaukett law veto which would have allowed the Montauketts to be recognized by the State last December.
“It’s a great start,” Dennis said of the decision to eliminate the Native mascots. “But schools also need to consider including a more positive portrayal of Native Americans. They could commission a mural from a Native American artist or incorporate visits to reservations and communities as part of the program.
It remains unclear whether the state will allocate funds to affected districts for the rebranding or whether schools will be responsible for restructuring their annual budgets to do so.
