A pain in the mascot: North Shore enters the Native American nickname fray
By Barbara Taormina and Mike Gaffney
North Shore Sunday
Sunday, March 11, 2007
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| The Masconoment Chieftans are among the teams that have come under fire for their Native American nickname. |
Every once and awhile, residents in and around Amherst will form a committee and push the town to change its name. And while renaming a place that's been on the map for almost 250 years is a pretty big deal, those who support the idea have their reasons.
Amherst was named after Lord Jeffery Amherst, a huge star in the French and Indian War. As commander of the British army, he seized most of the French territory in Canada. But Amherst is also known for another allegedly cutting-edge idea: He came up with a plan to get rid of regional populations of Native Americans by giving them blankets infected with smallpox.
It's not hard to see why some residents might feel a little uncomfortable living in a town named for one of history's biggest scumbags. And if we want to start correcting the ways New England has misrepresented and misunderstood Native American history, changing the name of Amherst might be a place to start.
At least that's what Saugus resident Ed Murray thinks. Like a lot of people in Saugus, Murray is feeling a little defensive about Saugus High's sports logo and nickname, the Sachems, a Native American word meaning "chief" or "head of a tribe." Saugus and 45 other school districts, including Masconomet, Wakefield and Amesbury, were spotlighted last month at a meeting of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association's Sportsmanship Committee for using Native American imagery and mascots in their sports programs.
Peter Sanfaçon, who heads up the New England Anti-Mascot Coalition, is leading the charge against schools that use the names and images in the hope of convincing them to get rid of an "outdated" tradition. He celebrated one victory this week when the Natick School Committee voted 4 to 3 to scrap its team name, the Redmen, next year.
But that's one down and 45 to go, and Sanfaçon seems determined to get rid of them all.
And that doesn't sit well in Saugus, where Murray and others people appear genuinely attached to the Sachem logo.
"...If we remove all Native American symbols from our schools, we have taken yet another step to make them invisible," Murray says. "My high school mascot was a Native American chief, depicted respectfully, and we took great pride in what we considered the lineage of our town."
Saugus residents feel the Sachem image is part of their town history and being forced to give it up is, for a lot of people, another example of political correctness run amuck.
But Murray has a strategy to deal with the mascot issue.
"If you don't buy into this, if you ignore it long enough, these things tend to go away," he says.
That appears to be the plan at Masconomet. School officials say the district logo, the Chieftains, isn't an issue right now and there are no plans to put it on any agenda.
They are aware, however, that different organizations are talking about it, and they will address it in the future — if they have to.
And they just might have to. The MIAA's Sportsmanship Committee in investigating the issue of Native Americans mascots and many in that organization hope to see the practice eliminated sooner rather than later.
What's not clear yet is if the MIAA has the authority to force schools to change their nicknames. The Sportsmanship Committee hopes to have a few answers when it meets again on May 9.
Bill Gaine Jr., deputy director of the MIAA, said he wants his organization to find out from member schools if they want to do anything.
"It's a discovery process to get reaction from our schools," Gaine says.
A town tradition
Saugus resident and former art teacher Bob Sacco isn't positive, but he thinks the Sachem name and image started sometime in then 1930s when a local girl suggested it might be a good name for the town sports teams. The Sachem image caught on and has been gaining ground ever since. Nowadays, as part of the town seal, it's on everything official.
"I don't think it's offensive and I'd hate to see it ever change," says Sacco, who uses the Sachem image to portray the Saugus everyman in his political cartoons for the Saugus Advertiser, running the gamut from the town's budget problems to the teachers' contract. "It would be a shame if we had to get rid of it."
And that seems to be the word on the street in Saugus.
"I don't see the Sachem as an offensive thing," says Glen Davis, who organizes the Babe Ruth baseball league in Saugus. "I think people would be upset if they were forced to change it."
School Superintendent Keith Manville is keeping a close eye on the debate, but he also feels the Sachem image is a positive one that was created out of respect.
"I don't think there is anything about the nickname that is derogatory or insulting to Native Americans," Manville says. "Having said that, I'm not a Native American and I can't speak for how they feel."
Manville says he isn't opposed to looking into the matter further, but emphasized there are more pressing problems facing the School Department now, like the budget crunch and potential teacher layoffs.
So far, Manville says he has yet to receive any complaints from residents objecting to the use of Sachems as the official nickname/mascot.
Murray feels names like the Sachems resonate with kids because they are images that imply strength, intelligence and fairness.
"You name yourself after something you expect to gain power from," says Murray, who points to the fact that many of the animals' names used for teams, such as tigers, panthers and rams, are also meant to convey the ideas of determination and strength. "You're not going to ever see a team called the New York Wimps."
But that's not to say that people in Saugus don't recognize there is a problem with logos and mascots.
Murray understands how the cartoon logo for the Cleveland Indians would be offensive to some people. And he agrees the tomahawk chop that used to be an Atlanta Braves tradition crossed the line. But people in Saugus don't see their logo in the same way.
T.J. Wojciechowski, a member of the class of '94 who now lives in Oregon, is one of many now urging the town not to buckle under pressure.
"(Sachem) isn't a derogatory name. Saugus Sachems doesn't carry any undesirable adjectives or verbs in front of it, such as savage or fighting," says Wojciechowski. "I say, keep the nickname Sachems. I see it as a different case then (sic) the Redman or Redskins, which are offensive terms."
Time for a change?
Still, not everyone buys the suggestion that mascots or nicknames pay tribute to Native Americans.
Sanfacon points to a declaration made by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 2001 that the elimination of Native American nicknames and images as sports mascots would benefit all Americans by getting rid of racial stereotypes.
Like others, Sanfacon underlines the fact that that you don't find races other than Native Americans portrayed as mascots.
"You never see mascots named after Asian Americans or African Americans," Sanfacon remarked. "Imagine the uproar if you had an African mascot with a bone through his nose. Native Americans are the only race depicted as mascots in sports." Although there are a few nationalities represented, like the Celtics or Notre Dame and their names and logos that highlight Irish determination and leprechauns.
Sanfacon also questions the logic of overwhelmingly white communities deciding if a mascot linked to a minority population is appropriate, considering the country's troubled history of relocating and killing Native Americans in order to grab their land.
"It's not right to `honor' victims of genocide by putting them on the backs of jerseys or football helmets," Sanfacon stresses. "That's not an honor, it's encouraging racial stereotypes."
Many of the 46 cities and towns that use Native American nicknames have people of Native American heritage in their school districts, Sanfacon says. If these people are offended by the nickname or logo at the school they attend, it becomes a civil rights issue.
Bruce Curliss, the former head of the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs, says the question of mascots is an emotional issue on both sides. His big hope is that people will be able to leave their feelings at the door and look at the question logically. It's a hope, anyway.
"I don't believe Native American mascots were ever meant to be hurtful," says Curliss, who now runs a youth program in Sommerville. "It's become hurtful because Native Americans have worked so hard over the last 30 years to change the way people view them and their culture."
Curliss questions whether or not the people actually understand the Sachem image, the language and culture it comes from and all that it means. He points out that the Saugus Sachem's war bonnet is right out of Hollywood, and he worries that people will continue to work off of their superficial understanding of Native American culture, which so often comes from old Saturday matinees.
And while schools might think they are in control of an image and presenting it respectfully, they don't have much control over a crowd at a football game that celebrates a touchdown with war whoops and foot stomping that sounds like tom-toms.
People in Saugus say that doesn't happen nowadays, although some do remember a time when the cheerleaders dressed in what they considered to be Native American costumes and there was a little tom-tom beat happening when the home team scored.
Curliss thinks if people in Saugus or at Masconomet heard and understood how and why the mascots hurt people, and why some Native Americans see them as racial stereotypes, the change might happen naturally. For Saugus it would mean a lot of new stationery, seals and street signs, but the Saugus Ironmen is already waiting in the wings as one possibility.
Curliss says the most important thing is that people listen to one another and make an honest stab at trying to understand the other point of view. He understands that people in Saugus would feel defensive, because not only do they not see anything wrong with their mascot, they are also being asked to change it. He doesn't expect miracles or complete agreement. In fact, he says there are differing opinions about the logos and mascots within the Native American community itself.
All Curliss really wants to see at this point is some peaceful dialogue.
"I would like to see us all respectfully agree to disagree," he says.