‘Warriors’ Spark Battle

Objecting to what it calls a degrading depiction of its people, the local chapter of the American Indian Movement is asking an Irvine high school to cease using Native American imagery for its sports team logos or mascot.

The issue of using Native American names and images for mascots is long-standing, but “it has been on the back burner too long,” said Daniel Chapin, spokesman for the Southern California chapter of the American Indian Movement. The Native American community may be small in Orange County, Chapin said--the most recent census figures put the number at less than 1% of the county’s population--but that is all the more reason to raise the issue.

Chapin said he decided to tackle Woodbridge High School’s mascot when other Native Americans contacted him with complaints. The high school mascot is the “Warrior,” depicted at some games by a student dressed as an American Indian; a campus mural features the face of a Native American; and the football team’s Web site shows Native American warriors riding horses, with the drawing flanked by images of spears.

“It is incredibly offensive . . . to see [a student] dressed as a mascot in feathers and buckskin at football games,” Chapin said. “I went to a pregame, and it was very offensive.”

Chapin said the “Warriors” name at Woodbridge, coupled with the images of Native Americans, unfairly portrays “a peaceful and intellectual culture” as hostile and ready to fight. He plans to go before the Irvine Unified School District board on Tuesday.

Woodbridge Principal Greg Cops said that although the mascot is intended to be one of pride, not derision, the school would take the concerns seriously.

“I don’t know how to respond,” Cops said. “My personal feeling is that it is an image of pride. It’s a strong portrayal [of Native Americans]. But if it is a problem to society, we need to deal with it.” The student council will take up the issue, he said.

Two years ago, when many California schools were under pressure to reconsider mascots and team names such as the Indians and the Comanches, students at Woodbridge discussed the issue and concluded that because their mascot is not depicted in a cartoonish way, it could remain.

The controversy comes as similar issues flare elsewhere in Southern California. On Tuesday, the county Board of Supervisors there voted 4 to 1 to urge San Diego State University officials to keep the Monty Montezuma mascot, meant to portray Aztec emperor Montezuma II, as well as the name “Aztecs” for university sports teams.

The university student council voted last month to drop the school’s sports mascot after hearing Native American students complain that the mascot and logos are demeaning and racist; in two weeks the student body will vote on the issue. The Aztec logo, a Native American in full headdress, is used on countless university souvenirs.

“Such depictions are shallow and surface. They are morally wrong,” Chapin said, because society should know better by now. He said the mascot issue is no longer a matter of good or bad intentions--historically, officials from the Washington Redskins professional football team to the Atlanta Braves professional baseball team have defended their team names by saying they weren’t meant to be insulting. Woodbridge should adapt to a more sensitive age, he said.

One of those who complained to Chapin was Samantha “Running Bear” Wesleye, 19. Wesleye, a member of the Lakota Sioux tribe who was born in South Dakota, moved to Irvine a month ago from Washington, D.C. When she saw the mural in her new neighborhood, she said, she felt alienated and self-conscious.

“We exist as real, human, loving people with feelings. . . . We shouldn’t be mascots,” Wesleye said. “When I saw the mural, it just made me really, really sad. What kind of message does it send to people?”

She said she wishes the school would simply change its mascot to a soldier, which would enable the school to retain the “Warrior” name without offending an entire demographic group.

Traditionally, the school has seen it differently. The school’s mascot has been criticized “three or four times in the last 20 years,” Cops said, but students never felt the image was ill-intentioned or offensive.

Students have always voted to uphold the tradition because the image was not meant to offend and was seen as a representation of pride. “Obviously, if the mascot offends people, we want to be sensitive,” Cops said. But he added that “this might be one of those things where everything is subject to interpretation.”