Native American mascots have been a part of sports for almost as long as organized sports exist. From the professional level down to pee-wee, in sports like hockey, football, baseball, and basketball, American Indians have been represented and honored through the use of mascots and team names. The reasons why vary, usually because a certain tribe once occupied the land where the particular team plays, but the names were meant to honor, not denigrate.
Until recently, most people, Native Americans included, didn’t find the names and mascots to be problematic. Then wokeness started seeping into everyday life, and starting mostly at the college level, names like Redskins, and Redmen began to disappear. Even if names that were once used as slurs existed, the intent was no longer with the words. They were simply team names, and most folks thought of them thusly.
Several years ago, the woke crowd came for professional sports, and the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians had to find new names. The Commanders and Guardians, respectively, are the same teams with the same colors; however, now sport bland, inoffensive names and mascots. Chief Wahoo of the Cleveland Indians and Chief Knockahoma of the Braves are now answers to trivia questions.
High school sports have also fallen victim to cancel culture, but recently, a Pennsylvania school did an about-face when a newly elected school board voted to bring back the school’s beloved mascot. The Southern York County School District voted 7-2 to restore its traditional logo, which featured a “Warrior Head” adorned in a headdress with a pipe and tomahawk. The mascot honored the Susquehannock Indian tribe, which once had lived in the area of the school district.
In 2020, the school’s diversity committee claimed that the tribe never actually lived in the area, and the logo was changed to a “W” with an arrow through it, allegedly to show “movement and a forward, upward direction symbolizing the district’s direction in academics, athletics and as a community.” The move outraged the community, including a number of local historians who disagreed about the possibility of the tribe never living in the area.
The Susquehanna National Heritage Area’s own website seemed to support the location of the tribe locally. It said: “The Susquehannock lived in large fortified towns, the largest of which may have had a population of nearly 3,000 people. Their communities were located along the Susquehanna, especially in Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, and York counties.” Despite the website and a petition featuring 3,800 signatures, the school board decided to move forward with the change.
The Native American Guardians Association, which has also pushed for the restoration of the Redskins name to the Washington NFL franchise, hailed the reversal. They said: “The SYCSD school board stands as a role model and blueprint for other communities fighting for their Native names and imagery.” At the Thursday meeting, one member of the community spoke out and said: “This school was built on Susquehanna land. Those people lived here. You cannot rewrite history. You can’t cancel the past.”
Ultimately, the new school board did the right thing and brought back the mascot. Cancel culture seeks to erase the past, and in the case of some Native American tribes, the past is all that’s left. Thankfully, this Pennsylvania town spoke up and took the woke school board to task for canceling Native American heritage.
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