March 8, 2006
Michael L. Hopkins
Superintendent of Schools
Rochester School Department
150 Wakefield Street, Suite 8
Rochester, NH 03867
Dear Mr. Hopkins,
In August 2002 the New Hampshire State Board of Education unanimously approved a resolution calling for local school districts to stop using American Indian sports mascots. This resolution stated, in part, that the Board "is aware that various Native American organizations, state and local officials, and private citizens, find the use of Native American mascots and symbols within our public schools to be offensive." The resolution further states that "it is important to be culturally sensitive and to educate everyone working within the New Hampshire School Education System, that no matter how well meaning their intentions, that their actions may be offensive and harmful to some and therefore, need to be eliminated."
A similar resolution adopted by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 2001 states that mascots that stereotype Native Americans "are particularly inappropriate and insensitive in light of the long history of forced assimilation that American Indian people have endured in this country."
Several years have gone by since these resolutions were issued and Spaulding High School's "Red Raider" is still here.
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Spaulding High School
"Red Raider"--2006 |
The school's "Red Raiders" name and logo have been in existence for many, many years, just as it was when I attended the school in the 1970's. School representatives claim that the name and logo are "honoring" Native Americans. Do we honor Native Americans by calling them "Red" and then using that color in our sports teams' uniforms? Do we honor Native Americans by referring to them as "Raiders?" What honor is there in depicting an entire race of people as aggressive and violent? The name "Red Raiders" honors no one.
Do we honor Native Americans by portraying them as cartoons? By rendering them with sad or angry faces with bright red skin? No race of people on Earth has skin of that color. The "Red Raiders" logo honors no one.
The image also appears to be a representation of a member of one of the Plains tribes rather than from a tribe native to the New England area. Do we honor Native Americans by creating our own image of an amalgam of various tribes from different eras of history—a history with a legacy of colonization of Native Peoples, land dispossession, broken treaties, massacres of men, women, and children? Today the Indian population of this country accounts for just 0.9 percent of the total U.S. population. After what the ancestors of today's Native Americans survived, would a reasonable person believe that Native Americans feel honored by having a high school football team named after them? Perhaps they might if the name was an honorable one and the team had Indian players—if they had ever been consulted in the first place. But the name is not a name of respect and honor. It's a name that disparages and insults the very people the administration at Spaulding professes to honor.
If the school is, indeed, honoring Native Americans by referring to them as "Red Raiders" and displaying a logo with a bright red face, is this the full extent to which the school honors a disenfranchised and subjugated people? Is there any information at the school, either on display or in reference material in the school's library, that attempts to educate the students about the history of this country's treatment of Native Americans? There was precious little when I attended Spaulding in the ‘70s. Is there a program at the school that attempts to educate the students about racial stereotypes, bigotry, and intolerance? Is there any information available to students, faculty, alumni, and the public regarding the origin of the "Red Raiders" mascot? The school's website has an image of the "Red Raiders" logo, which can be viewed by site visitors in Rochester, throughout New Hampshire and the northeast, as well as in Alaska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and South Dakota, the four states with the largest percentage of Native American residents. If this name and logo is, indeed, honoring all Native Americans, why is there no information available on the school's website? If Spaulding is proud of its "Red Raiders" name and logo, why is there no information about how the school honors Native Americans?
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Native Americans make up just two tenths of one percent of the population of New Hampshire (2,600 people, ranked 47th in the U.S.). Rochester's population is 97 percent White. Why has Spaulding chosen to honor only Native Americans? Would it make any sense to a reasonable person to "honor" African-Americans with the image of a man with a black face on team uniforms? Or to honor Asian-Americans with the image of a man with a bright yellow face?
Learning to Tolerate Racism
Dr. Cornel Pewewardy, an assistant professor at the University of Kansas and a Comanche and Kiowa, in a paper he authored called Why Educators Can't Ignore Indian Mascots, wrote, "As long as such negative mascots and logos remain within the arena of school activities, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous children are learning to tolerate racism in schools. Inaction in the face of racism is racism. As culturally responsive educators, we must understand that ‘enslaved minds cannot teach liberation.'"
If Spaulding High School is sincere about their desire to honor Native Americans, I urge the administration to invite representatives of the Abenaki people, descendents of the original inhabitants of the area now known as Rochester, to speak to students and help educate them about the real history of the region and the plight of Native Americans living in this country today. I urge the administration to include a comprehensive course in Native American Studies as part of the curriculum in History and Social Studies for all juniors and seniors.
To quote Ellen J. Staurowsky, an associate professor at Ithaca College in New York, "if American Indian symbols and mascots promote respect, understanding, and honor within educational systems and on athletic teams,
Ms. Staurowsky adds, "If we come to terms with the fact that the athletic arena is no place to be trafficking in racial stereotypes, we can begin to address ways in which communities can be approached about eliminating these images."
What are we teaching our non-Indian students about racism and about real Native Americans?
On the Rochester Schools' website is posted the school district's Goals and Objectives, which states, in part, that "[a]s a vibrant and integral part of our community, the Mission of [the] Rochester School Department is to educate by [s]upporting and enhancing high ethical, moral, and social values to prepare students to become positive, contributing members of a complex, competitive, and ever changing society…The school district and its individual staff members are accountable for these standards. Substandard performance has no place in public education." We cannot expect our students to grow into adults with "high ethical, moral, and social values" when they are taught in school that it is alright to refer to human beings as "Red Raiders." Where will our leaders of tomorrow come from if today's leaders lack the courage to confront these issues and resolve them?
Schools and Universities Making Changes
In recent years, schools in other New Hampshire communities such as Goffstown, Northwood, Lebanon, and Penacook have changed their Indian mascots to something less offensive. In 1974, while I was attending Spaulding, Dartmouth College in Hanover eliminated the term, "Indians," as the name of their sports teams. Prior to 1974 athletic uniforms at Dartmouth bore a representation of an Indian warrior's head. That representation and similar images, called collectively "the Indian Symbol," came under criticism; during the early 1970's the Trustees declared the "use of the (Indian) symbol in any form to be inconsistent with present institutional and academic objectives of the College in advancing Native American education." Other colleges and universities have followed suit in recent years, namely, Marquette, Miami University of Ohio, San Jose State, St. John's, Stanford, and Syracuse. There are still more than 1,400 high schools in this country that use Native American imagery in one form or another to promote their sports teams.
Organizations across the United States have called for the elimination of Indian mascots. These include the NAACP, The American Indian Movement, The National Indian Education Association, The National Congress of American Indians, The Society of Indian Psychologists of the Americas, and the NCAA. To date, more than 600 academic institutions have responded to these challenges by changing or eliminating their use of American Indian imagery in association with their athletic department.
To those who claim that this is a trivial matter and that Native Americans and their advocates should focus on more important issues, I say that there is nothing more important than the fundamental right of U.S. citizens to be seen as human beings rather than as objects or symbols—as mascots. Incidentally, Native Americans were not granted U.S. citizenship until 1924, six years after the end of World War I, a war in which an estimated 12,000 Native American soldiers served this country.
To those who are inclined to resort to a poll, like the one currently on the alumni website, to determine the popularity of changing the "Red Raiders" mascot I would advise against it. Racism is not a subject on which one polls people. If someone had run a poll in Selma, Alabama, in 1963, the racists would have easily outnumbered the oppressed and voted to keep oppressing them. With Native Americans accounting for about 1% of the U.S. population—even less in the state of New Hampshire—they will never be able to out-vote the racists and the unenlightened in such a poll.
I was born and raised in Rochester and despite receiving very little information on Native American culture and history during my school years, I am proud of the education I did receive while attending Rochester schools, including my four years at Spaulding. It is because of my education that I bring this issue to your attention today. I no longer live in Rochester but still have family here; family with school age children in the Rochester School system. The issue here is not the messenger, but the message: Native American mascots are offensive and hurtful and have no place in an education environment. What kind of message are we sending our children if we continue to do nothing? As a former student I urge the Rochester School Board to once again review the 2002 N.H. State Board of Education resolution and bring an end to the "Red Raiders" name and mascot at Spaulding High School. I urge you to follow the lead of more than 600 educational institutions in this country that have stopped using Native American names and imagery in their sports programs and mandate that Spaulding High School do the same by the beginning of the 2006–2007 school year.
It is time to finally right a wrong. If you must honor someone, honor your students by having the courage to take a leadership position on this issue. Stand up against racism and intolerance, and help educate others to do the same. How can we ask our children to stand up for what is right if we are not willing to do so ourselves?
Sincerely,
Peter V. Sanfaçon
Spaulding Class of 1977
