Visit Only Inflames Apache Mascot Debate

Battles over use of Indian mascots by high schools and sports teams have become commonplace across the country, but the standoff over Arcadia High School’s use of an Apache mascot is different.

That’s because Principal Martin Plourde may be the first public school official in the United States to seek a tribe’s blessing to use its name.

The educator, who is white and views himself as a social justice advocate, is married to an African American and taught for years in South-Central Los Angeles. He wanted to hear directly from real Apaches how they felt about his school’s use of the name.

But Plourde’s attempts at racial sensitivity at home have not only left the mascot question unsettled, they have also incensed Los Angeles’ Native American community and embroiled him in tribal politics 600 miles away in Arizona.

In December, two months after Apaches and other Native Americans in full tribal regalia began protesting at Arcadia school board meetings and sports events, Plourde drove 10 hours through the desert to meet with Apache students and tribal leaders on the Fort Apache Reservation, home to the White Mountain Apaches, one of nine autonomous Apache tribes.

Students at Alchesay High School overwhelmingly told Plourde that they found Arcadia’s use of the Apache name offensive and advised him to change it.

Tribal leaders, on the other hand, said they were honored by the use of the name, and proposed a sister-city-type relationship, with exchanges in which poverty-stricken Apache students could learn about life in Arcadia, and Arcadia students could learn about the Apaches.

Plourde said the visit was “a life-changing experience,” and came home convinced not only that it was all right for Arcadia teams to remain the Apaches, but also that the relationship would be an educational experience for students in both places.

Native American activists in Los Angeles, however, were outraged. They have been pressing the Arcadia school board to get rid of the Apache mascot for two years, and are angry over what they consider Plourde’s end run around them. They have accused him of misrepresenting Arcadia High to tribal leaders in Arizona. They have printed signs, which they wave prominently at basketball games, depicting the principal as a grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

On Thursday morning, Los Angeles-based private investigator Eugene Herrod--a Native American who has fought to eradicate Indian high school mascots for a decade--will ask the White Mountain Apache Tribal Council to reverse itself and formally condemn the school.

White Mountain tribal leaders say that they are not sure what they will do. “We kind of supported it at the time [of Plourde’s visit], but now we’re going to hear the other side of the story,” said Noland Clay, a council member.

If the White Mountain tribe changes its position, Plourde said, he will probably ask the school board to change Arcadia’s mascot. But until then, he said, Arcadia students have a right to “hold their heads up as Apaches.”

Native American activists beg to differ.

“We do not understand why you continue to believe that it is acceptable for you to perpetuate those negative feelings against our nation,” Vickie Vela, an Apache, told Arcadia school board members last week. “For you to continue . . . is not only a crime against Apache people, but all of humanity.”

Some also charge that the few Native American students at Arcadia High have been discriminated against, said Fern Mathias, an Indian activist whose grandchildren attend the school.

School officials dispute those charges. Ever since protests began against the mascot 2 1/2 years ago, students have tried to eradicate all offensive symbols and to promote an appreciation of Apache culture on campus, Plourde said. But many, especially at Alchesay High School, are not mollified.

“By using our name, Apache, for your school’s logo, the action directly takes from us,” Dhanielle Declay, a senior at Alchesay, told Plourde when he visited in December. “You’ve taken almost everything from us. In the very least, I ask that you leave us our name. Leave our heritage, our religion, our language, our ways, and our name alone.”

Alchesay’s associate principal, Madeline Palmer, condemned Arcadia in even stronger language.

“I feel you treated our students with disrespect and a total lack of honesty,” she wrote to Plourde after his December visit. “After all your words about valuing what students feel and want to see accomplished, you chose to ignore everything they told you. . . . I do not care to have any more dealings with you or your administration.”

Palmer was disappointed because Plourde, after telling her students that he had come to Arizona to hear their opinions, by chance was introduced to a member of the Tribal Council, Herbert Tate. Tate invited the principal before the full council, which gave him permission to use the name.

In return, a grateful Plourde asked tribal leaders what Arcadia could do for them. “They said, ‘It’s cold, and we don’t have enough coats, and Christmas is coming and we don’t have Christmas gifts,’ ” Plourde said. Two weeks later, students, teachers, and a 15-foot truck stuffed with donated coats and toys set off from Arcadia.

When they got to Arizona, the students were met by a group of Apache young people, many of whom were in tears because Arcadia continues to use the Apache name, said Freda Liu, chairman of Arcadia’s Apache Commission.

Liu said the two groups of students talked for hours, finding out about one another’s worlds. At Arcadia High, many students live in million-dollar homes. At Alchesay, about 90% of the students receive free or reduced-price lunches, indicating low-income status, and many do not even have telephones in their homes.

But Arcadia students said the Apache teenagers had something they lack: “When you hear those kids speak about the culture and traditions they have, and what they have lost, I have never heard such profound stuff,” said David Hsu, student body vice president.

Even after hearing the Apache students’ arguments, however, Liu and Hsu said they believe Arcadia should continue to use the Apache symbol, as long as they use it respectfully.

Plourde said: “The reason we keep Apaches as a symbol is that, when you look at these people, who have been through so much . . . despite it all, they are standing proud,” he said. “What better symbol for our kids can there be?”