GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The Oneida Nation says it is frustrated by the Wisconsin Association of School Boards’ decision not to support banning the use of Native American mascots and logos.
The WASB considered a resolution Wednesday to call on all Wisconsin school districts to retire any remaining Native American mascots, symbols or imagery.
The resolution failed 101-218.
There are about 30 high schools in Wisconsin that use Native American names or mascots.
While WASB is a lobbying body and does not have the power to force any school district to make a change, Oneida Nation says the group’s adoption of the resolution would have been seen as a step forward.
In a statement released Thursday, Oneida Nation said,
The Oneida Nation strongly objects to the use of Native American mascots and logos and is frustrated by the decision of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB) not to include it as a priority. Oneida Nation Vice Chairman Brandon Yellow Bird Stevens has been an outspoken proponent for banning racial mascots, nationwide. Yellow Bird Stevens commented on the lack of attention to setting the WASB legislative policy, “ You cannot deny or disprove that racially-based mascots are offensive, hurtful and damaging to the many people we all represent, our neighbors, families and children. If we are to change the way our children see one another as equals in the future, we must support that initiative in our school systems, and it must begin with policy change.”
Resolutions in opposition to the use of racial mascots have been passed by all Native American Nations in Wisconsin, by the Great Lakes Intertribal Council as a body, by the National Congress of American Indians and numerous others expressing their opposition to the use of Native American images and names for sports teams.
The adage “we are honoring them” when in fact it does not. When school districts honor other people, they do so most often by naming a school, a gymnasium, or a library after an individual. Honoring is not achieved by depicting a race of people in a stereotypical image. Honoring could occur through the curriculum where a true and honorable representation of Native individuals and their nations could be conveyed to the students. Honoring does not include war whoops, tomahawk chops, and other antics that accompany such mascots at sporting events.
We encourage the WASB to join in the effort calling for lawmakers to ban Native American mascots and logos in Wisconsin’s public-school districts. To have these symbols and depictions of this cultural history used in inappropriate ways and without an understanding of the cultural significance and history behind them is a practice that must stop.
