Small group gathers to protest use of Ranger Rogers in city, school insignias
By Jill Harmacinski | Eagle-Tribune
Friday, October 5, 2006
METHUEN – The city has Ranger Road and Ranger Plaza. The high school mascot is a ranger. And police officers have the image of Robert "Ranger" Rogers emblazoned on patches on their uniforms.
But not everyone thinks Methuen-born "Ranger" Rogers is a local hero. A small group of American Indians gathered yesterday morning to protest Rogers as nothing more than a bounty hunter who slaughtered innocent Abenaki women and children in 1759.
"It's really disrespectful to native people," said Edward O'Keefe, a Wabanaki descendant who lives in Lowell. "Rogers murdered children and women in their sleep. ... He burned them in their homes."
But not everyone agrees with that assessment.
"They need to get a life," said Glenn Gaudreau, Methuen Historical Commission president, when asked about the participants at a vigil yesterday.
O'Keefe, along with fellow Lowell resident Alice Climent, a Micmac, organized a peaceful vigil at the busy intersection of Cross Street and Hampshire Road late yesterday morning. In all, five American Indians, including 83-year-old Grandfather Maple, an Abenaki subchief and tribal judge who has lived in Methuen for 61 years, attended the 10 a.m. vigil.
The event, which was monitored by police for safety reasons, took place just feet away from Rogers' 1731 birthplace along the Spicket River. O'Keefe said the vigil, which featured short speeches, drumming and an Indian mourning song, is just his starting point for publicizing Rogers' brutal crimes.
He said he believes city leaders and school officials should consider removing the "Ranger" nickname from city venues out of respect to American Indians. Climent agreed and said the continued glamorization of Rogers is not only disrespectful but also "subconscious racism" toward native people.
O'Keefe said he tried to speak with Arthur Nicholson, Methuen High School principal, about changing the school's mascot. But a secretary took a message and Nicholson never returned his call. O'Keefe said he also couldn't reach anyone in the mayor's office.
Historians regard Rogers as one of the most famous fighters who participated in the French and Indian War. He led a group of young men, known as Rogers Rangers, to St. Francis (Odanak) in Quebec, where they engaged in the massacre of 20 to 30 Abenaki women and children.
The tactics he developed during that war led to the creation of today's elite Army Rangers, according to historians.