Westlake High Rethinking Message of Warrior Mascot

A tomahawk-wielding cartoon Indian screams from a 20-foot mural that towers over the lunch tables at Westlake High School, home of the Warriors. Outside the principal’s office, a portrait of an Indian in war paint graces the wall and a leather drum decorated with feathers sits on the floor.

The school’s logo, an Indian headdress in profile, is everywhere on campus: spray-painted on lockers and silk screened on sweatshirts hanging in the student store.

But not, perhaps, for much longer.

School officials are hoping to avoid scrapping their Warrior logo by retooling it into a more historically accurate, inoffensive image. One local Chumash Indian tribe member has offered to help, but American Indian advocates are asking the 1,800 Chumash in Ventura County to reject compromise and demand the mascot’s elimination.

It’s a scene familiar at many colleges and schools--such as those in the Los Angeles Unified School District--where Native American groups have called the stereotypical images culturally degrading.

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Paul Varela, executive director of the Chumash Interpretive Center in Thousand Oaks, said he is caught in the middle. Willing to guide the school in designing an acceptable Indian logo, Varela is reconsidering his offer because of pressure from the Indian community opposed to cultural mascots.

“I just wanted to help create a positive image. If it looks nice, why not? But I’ve gotten a lot of comments from the Indian community saying they want no mascot,” Varela said. “I said I’d meet with the school, but I have to weigh what everyone says. This is about a community of people, not me.”

District secondary education director Chuck Eklund said Westlake High has been sensitive to Native American issues by its willingness to reexamine the mascot.

Eklund said the Warrior is an important tradition the school hopes to keep alive by using it appropriately.

“Making it better fit what the Native American population represents is a good idea,” Eklund said. “If it’s not a cartoon or caricature, I see the mascot being more of a badge of honor.”

Eugene Herrod, a board member of the Southern California Indian Center, disagrees. He said any Indian mascot--no matter how tasteful or historically accurate--would not be about honoring a race. Mascots are used to incite team spirit at sporting events, which trivializes any attempt to elevate Indian culture, Herrod said.

“The best way to learn about anyone’s culture is [in] the classroom, not at halftime,” Herrod said. “Would anyone celebrate the end of slavery at a football game with nonblack cheerleaders?”

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Carolyn Schubert, who will be a sophomore in the fall, said she is well aware of the mascot issue. She is on the staff of the school newspaper, which surveyed students this year on the issue.

“We knew at some point there would be controversy and a move to change the mascot. It does put a slant on Indian heritage and makes them look like brutal savages,” the 14-year-old said. “But most of the responses were for things like ‘Westlake Wallabees’ and other semi-ridiculous names.”

The lack of seriousness exhibited in the survey shows most students are not concerned about changing their mascot, she said.

And watering down the tomahawk image with a historically accurate Indian would undermine the very purpose of a mascot, Schubert said, which would not go over well with students wanting to get riled up at a big game.

“That would make it politically correct,” Schubert said. “But that would take away from what you think of in a mascot.”

Despite Chumash member Varela’s offer to help inject some reality into Westlake’s cartoonish Indian image, Herrod said it is best to abolish the mascot altogether.

“How do you make a positive-looking mascot?” Herrod said. “Our position is to get rid of the things. And I say ‘things’ because they don’t look like me at all.”

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Varela said his aim in creating a realistic Indian image for Westlake was to gradually wean the school away from the Native American Warrior and replace it with something generic.

“My goal was to suggest a nonspecific warrior, but until we get to that point I thought maybe we could at least create a positive Indian image,” Varela said. “I’m trying to take this one step at a time to get to the same end result.”

Varela said his process would be more educational for students than just abolishing a deeply rooted mascot without explaining why.

“I can tell the kids why the old mascot is wrong and teach them about the positive image of an Indian person,” Varela said. “I can challenge them to be culturally diverse.”