Native American Activists Seek Change in Mascots

Six months after winning a partial concession from an Irvine high school over the use of its Indian-themed mascot, Native American activists now are calling for the removal of a similar mascot at Fullerton Union High School, one of the oldest campuses in Orange County.

Earlier this month, Daniel Chapin, who locally represents the national American Indian Movement, sent a letter to Fullerton school officials complaining that the high school’s Indian mascot is offensive and insensitive to Native Americans.

In May, Chapin and other American Indian activists won a compromise from Irvine’s Woodbridge High School over its use of the Warrior mascot.

The school agreed to discontinue its tradition of a cartoonish live mascot--a person dressed in costume who performed at school games--but declined to change the Warriors name or paint over team logos. The school also agreed to introduce Native American curriculum in courses starting next year.

The arguments are familiar, and the strong emotions the issue evokes have diminished little in a debate that has raged for nearly 30 years across the country.

Fullerton school officials say that they, too, have started to eliminate offensive aspects of their mascot, but that there are no immediate plans to change the Indians name.

“After meeting with parents and alumni groups and the faculty, we pretty much decided that while nobody wants to offend anyone, we don’t want to change the mascot,” said Principal Greg Franklin.

That doesn’t satisfy some Native American critics.

“I’ve heard it all before,” said Eugene Herrod, board member of the Fountain Valley-based Southern California Indian Center and a longtime advocate on the mascot issue. “They say, ‘We’ve removed things that are offensive.’ How do they know what is offensive and what is not offensive? They are still using American Indian imagery.”

For almost a century, the Fullerton school Indian has been a symbol of pride for students, faculty and alumni in the northern Orange County community.

But many Native Americans say that what is a source of pride for some is a deep source of pain for them.

“The Native American people are a culture,” Chapin said. “We are not mascots or icons. We are not running around with bow and arrows or sitting around a campfire as depicted all over the place.”

Chapin said he was satisfied with the agreement reached with Woodbridge earlier this year because the school is moving in the right direction, but he wants to see all Indian mascots, including the Warriors, banished from Orange County.

Fullerton and Woodbridge are among three Orange County high schools that use American Indian mascots. Canyon High School in Anaheim Hills is known as the Comanches.

Advocates against American Indian sports mascots estimate there are more than 180 public schools in California that go by such names as Braves, Warriors, Redskins and Indians.

The advocates have won some significant battles. In 1997, the Los Angeles Unified School District banned such mascots from its schools. And across the country, the New York state education commission in April condemned the practice and called for schools to voluntarily eliminate racially offensive mascots.

Some activists say the pace of change is still too slow.

Chapin, who is half Cherokee, said he is prepared to hold demonstrations at the Fullerton school if officials do not address the issue. He has been in talks with district officials and is meeting with them Dec. 5. He said he will address the board of trustees at its next scheduled meeting, Dec. 11.

Chapin and Herrod say they understand that schools do not intend to demean Native Americans and that they may sincerely think they are paying homage with the mascot. However, they argue, the practice ignores their people’s history of subjugation by European colonizers and what they see as the ensuing social inequities that Native Americans still feel today.

Herrod, who is Muskogee-Creek, and others say the mascots dehumanize Native Americans, putting them in the same category as lions, tigers and bears, all popular mascots. Moreover, Herrod said, Indians or Braves are not the same as the University of Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish, for example.

Notre Dame was founded by Irish Catholics and the mascot was meant to honor its history. Most Indian mascots do not have that history.

Even when done with the best of intentions, Herrod said, the Indian murals at Fullerton High and the totem pole that stands in front of the school’s administrative office are offensive.

Herrod approached the Fullerton Joint Union High School District a year ago at its board of trustees meeting. Chapin, who has no affiliations with Herrod, is pressing with his own demands.

District officials and Franklin, the principal, say that even before they were approached by activists, the school had worked hard to increase awareness and sensitivity to American Indians’ point of view among students and faculty.

The school has eliminated the title Tepee Tales from its PTA newsletter and caricatures of the mascot are prohibited on school publications. This year, students are studying various aspects of Native American history and culture.

The school brought in 1964 Olympic gold medalist and Native American Billy Mills to speak to the students earlier this year. Franklin said the students were touched when Mills explained to them why the Indian mascot is offensive.

“As we become more educated on Native American issues and history,” Franklin said, “several people have changed perspectives on the mascot issue. We need better education to make better-educated decisions.”

The school also has consulted with the Orange County Human Relations Commission, which last year brought in a play called “Kicks,” about the struggles of a Native American student with her school’s use of an Indian mascot.

In the last year, Herrod has filed complaints with the state and U.S. Education departments against five Central and Northern California high schools for their use of the name Redskins, which he says are derogatory and discriminates against Native American students.

In 1999, he successfully argued a similar case with the Department of Motor Vehicles, which later banned personalized license plates with the word Redskins or any variations.

For the time being, Fullerton High is still the home of the Indians. No one is sure how the mascot came about, but district Supt. Michael Escalante said, “The legend is that one of the first teachers at the school was a graduate of Stanford University,” which used to be known as the Indians.

The university changed the mascot to the Cardinal in 1972, after American Indian students petitioned for a change.