Native American mascots are dwindling in NC schools, but some aren’t ready to give them up – The Fayetteville Observer

Pride or appropriation? Two North Carolina towns are the sites of fierce battles over American Indian imagery.

The mascot for South Point High School Red Raiders is an American Indian man with an earring and a long feather running alongside a mohawk. Its an image Isabella Lanford would like to erase.

Lanford grew up in Belmont, a small cityin Gaston County near Charlotte. In the mid-2010s, she attended Belmont Middle School (nickname: the Wildcats) and thought shed join her classmates for the ninth grade at South Point High.

A home football game changed her mind. Lanford, a Lumbee Indian, saw South Point fans in face paint carrying fake tomahawks. Most of the crowd was white. When the Red Raiders scored, many cupped their hands over their mouths and released stereotypical Native American war cries.

It enrages my family when they hear that, she said of the chants that bear no resemblance to the actual sounds her relatives make at traditional ceremonies. When everyone was doing that around me, I was like, I dont think I should come back here.I think thats when I understood.

Her mother, an Indigenous rights advocate, requested Gaston County Schools transfer Lanford to another school. The district approved the request, but Lanford attended a magnet school instead. After graduating from the N.C.School of Science and Mathematics in Durham, Lanford, now 18, is a freshman at American University in Washington, D.C.

Though she never attended South Point, Lanford still feels compelled to help end the American Indian mascot at a school with few American Indian students.

Last summers protests for racial justiceescalated theperennial debate around American Indian nicknames, logos, and actions - like chants and tomahawk chomps - in schools and sports.

Facing pressure from corporate sponsors like FedEx and Nike, the professional football team in Washington, D.C.,abandoned Redskins, a slur according to most dictionaries. In December, the Cleveland Indians baseball team - which had already phased out its scarlet-faced cartoon mascot Chief Wahoo - announced it would play under a new name.

Many North Carolina schools made these changes years ago.

Since 2002 - the year the N.C. State Advisory Council on Indian Education called on all K-12 public schools to stop using American Indian mascots and imagery - districts have swapped out Indians for Wolves (Alamance-Burlington Schools), Braves for Bears (Craven County Schools), and Redskins for Ravens, Miners, and Knights.

According to the council, the number of North Carolina schools using Native American names and images in athletics fell by half from 2002 to 2017.

This summer, Catawba Countys Arndt Middle School became the latest school to ditch Redskins.In a message to families introducing Arndts new nickname of Warriors, principal Jennifer Stodden said, It is time for us to take this leap forward and show that we are a school of cultural responsiveness.

But some schools like South Pointhavent taken this leap.Local residents argue the nicknames and mascots are about pride,not appropriation -honor, not hate. They are symbols that bind their communities together, mascot defenders say, and altering them would be bowing to unchecked political correctness.

In a pair ofNorth Carolina counties, the mascot issue has splitschool communities,pitting alumni against alumni in a battle over tradition and identity.

'Dude, you're not going to change this'

Late last spring,Lanford joined Retire the Red Raider, a network of students, teachers, alumni, and Belmont residents that formed to push for a new mascot.

State data shows fewerthan 0.2% of students at Gaston County Schools identify as American Indian. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, only one American Indian student was enrolled at South Point in the 2018-19 school year.

Its infuriating, and its sad because I know the children who go to that high school dont understand because no one tells them, Lanfordsaid. They just see it as a mascot, they see it as an image, and they see it as something of their own.

Laura Boyce, who graduated from South Point in 2003, started aRetire the Red Raider Mascot petition which has received 6,300 signatures.

Boyce, who now lives in Philadelphia, said she didnt think twice about the Red Raider logo when she attended South Point.

Thats a common experience weve heard from a number of our supporters that it took getting outside of Belmont to really understand the offensiveness of the name, she said. I look back and wince.

But many South Point alumni look back with pride.

A counter-petition supporting the Red Raider mascot, created by South Point alum Celeste Kitchen (Class of 79), has gained 3,500 signatures. I am getting sick of all this stupid political correctness, someone wrote on the petition website as their reason for signing. Enough is enough.

The Gaston Gazette reported that when Retire the Red Raider members spoke at the local school board meeting in July, Red Raider supporters showed up, too.

I believe I speak for the overwhelming majority of citizens in the Belmont and South Point High School community when I say that we regret having to be here to defend our team name and logo, which takes away precious time from your agenda, Jason Rumfelt, a Belmont resident, told the board.

Jerry Denton, a Belmont resident who has watched South Point sports for decades, said it helps to be from the area to truly understand the mascots significance.

You would have to have lived the memories if you grew up in this city, he told the USA Today Network in a Facebook message.

Asked about the prospects of South Point getting a different nickname, Denton was blunt: Dude, you are not going to change this.

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Belmont isnt the first community to tussle over mascots.

In the late 1990s, Erwin High School in Asheville drew national attention after a parents complaint prompted a U.S. Justice Department investigation into whether Erwins use of American Indian imagery created a racially hostile environment.

The complaint came from Pat Merzlak, whose adopted son Richard was a Lakota Sioux Indian.

Classmates would ask Richard to ride his horse at home football games, which at first he agreed to do, but eventually grew resentful of Erwins pervasive Native references.

The boys teams were called the Warriors and girls teams were called the Squaws (an offensive term for American Indian women). A massive statue of an American Indian man loomed by the schools front entrance. A totem pole stood inside.

At Erwin games, opposing fans made ruthless references to American Indians, calling on their players to Scalp and Massacre the Warriors.

In the 1998-99 school year, fewerthan 0.5% of Buncombe County students were American Indian.

Speaking before the Buncombe County School Board in December 1998, Merzlak said, If just one Indian child suffers impaired self-esteem and is discriminated against because of a mascot, isnt that too many?

The Justice Department soon got involved, sending an American Studies professor from Yale to tour the school. Merzlak recalls the issue dividing the community, with some shouting Indian lover when they drove by her.

In March 1999, the district struck a compromise with the Justice Department, agreeing to terminate the Squaws nickname while keeping Warriors. The towering American Indian statue still stands on school grounds.

I think it educated some people and probably firmed up some beliefs both pro and con, Merzlak, who now lives in eastern Tennessee, said of the controversy.

Since Erwin retired Squaws,the number of K-12 schools using American Indian mascots, names, or images has dropped from 73 in 2002 to 36 in 2017. Community activists, not school boards, drove this decline according to Mary Ann Jacobs, a professor of American Indian Studies at UNC Pembroke and member of North Carolinas Lumbee Tribe.

You have to have a situation where organized groups - or at least one really determined individual - goes to the school board and says, You have to make this change, she said. Its very unusual for the school board to just do it on their own because people are really attached to their mascots and want to put ownership on that.

The nine-member Gaston County Board of Education hasnt decided on the fate of the Red Raider, district spokesperson Todd Hagans said in an email on behalf of board chair Jeff Ramsey.

We realize that people have strong feelings related to school mascots, Hagans said, referring both to South Point and East Gaston High School, which uses mascot imagery of an American Indian wearing feathers and sometimes a headdress.

Hagans suggested the board might abstain from ruling on the Red Raider mascot, noting the board doesnt have a mascot policy. Past decisions on school colors, mascots, and logos, he said, were left up to school and community leaders.

Gastons school board is elected, which adds a political component to how it addresses this divisive issue.

In an interview with the USA Today Network, board member Steve Hall said he wanted to hear from all concerned residents before deciding on the Red Raiders.

Born and raised in Gaston County, Hall said hes still trying to learn more about why many find Native American references in sports problematic.

The Washington Redskins, its been that way for years and now its not good enough, he said. Thats not my decision making, but a lot of it I just dont understand. I dont think it was called that to disgrace the American Natives.

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Athletic teams at UNC Pembrokeare called the Braves and their mascot is an American Indian with a hawk hovering over their head.

Pembroke was founded in the late 1800s as a teaching school for American Indians. Its student body is 13% American Indian, as are many of its professors. The campus is in Robeson County, home to the Lumbee Tribe. Its this presence of actual American Indians, Mary Ann Jacobs said, that makes the nickname and mascot feel representative, not exploitative.

For schools without a significant American Indian population, Jacobs warned the use of tomahawks, war cries, and chieftain caricatures prevent students from understanding the real challenges facing Indigenous communities.

Mascots hurt because if your only experience with Native people is through mascots or cartoons, then its going to be hard for you to see us as real human beings, Jacobs said. You cant really understand all these other problems that were having in our community.

Unemployment, health inequalities, domestic violence, and other side effects of historical disenfranchisement are prevalent in American Indian communities, she said. Inequalities extend to the classroom.

In 2019, American Indians in North Carolina public schools trailed their white classmates by at least 15 points in every state tested subject. Their dropout rate is3%, nearly doublethat of white students.

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This October, a video played before the Dare County Board of Education showeda procession of Manteo High School students and alumnistating their names and graduating classes before declaring they were proud to be a Redskin.

Located in the smalltown of Manteo on the Outer Banks,Manteo High is one of two schools in the state that carries on the controversial nickname that some American Indians call the R-Word.Supporters of the nickname say it honors the Croatan Indian chief Manteo, who lived in the area in the 16th century.

Please do not erase our identity because of the current trend to cancel the past, a Manteo High student said in the video to the school board.

Most of thepeople in the video, like most students at school, werewhite or Black. This year, only one American Indian student was enrolled in Dare County Schools, state data shows.

The Proud to be a Redskin video was a response to an effort started last year by The Change the Manteo Mascots Initiative which hopes the high school follows the lead of Washingtons professional football team and changes its nickname.

In September, the Change the Manteo Mascot group brought a petition with more than 12,000 signatures to the Dare County school board. In addition to the high school, the group of alum and Outer Banks residents Manteo Middle School reconsider its Braves nickname.

Redskin does not inspire pride in everyone, especially my people, Marilyn Berry Morrison, chief of the Roanoke-Hatteras Indians of Dare County, said in a video message to the board. Morrison called the nickname racist and said, If ever there is a time to make a change, it is now. Its past time to change.

Following the pro-Redskin video in October, the seven-member school board decided to keep Manteos nickname for now, with members not wishing to burden students with a mascot change during the pandemic. Severalboard members graduated from Manteo High andvoiced their pride in its nickname.

Board member Harvey Hess expressed disappointment in the schools and teamsthat have phased out "Redskins."

It is regretful that some localities and organizations have conceded to the pressure from people who are determine to make every effort to do away with the very idea of own American traditions and local traditions, he said.

Brian Gordon is a statewide reporter with the USA Today Networkin North Carolina. Reach him at bgordon@gannett.com or on Twitter @briansamuel92.

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Native American mascots are dwindling in NC schools, but some aren't ready to give them up - The Fayetteville Observer