SKOWHEGAN — A unanimous vote Wednesday by the Wells-Ogunquit school board to remove Native American imagery associated with school sports teams left Skowhegan Area High School as the lone high school in Maine still using such images.
And it doesn’t appear the Skowhegan Indians plan to change that anytime soon. Most officials in the school district refused to even comment on the issue.
“I am unaware of any planned action to change the name of sports teams at this time,” School Administrative District 54 Superintendent Brent Colbry said this week. “I have received no comments or requests from board members regarding this issue.”
Athletic Director Jon Christopher said in an email Thursday that he will not discuss the topic under any circumstances.
“Any comments on this will be left to our superintendent and school board, if they choose to comment at any time,” he said.
The Wells-Ogunquit vote ended seven months of discussion after a study committee was appointed to review the Wells High School “Warriors” nickname and its associated “Warrior head” logo, along with other Native American imagery.
The discussion pitted residents who consider the imagery offensive or insensitive against those who view it as a proud part of the school’s tradition. The latter is the case in Skowhegan, where some locals say the names and images associated with the sports teams are a source of pride.
Maulian Dana
But some Native Americans living in Maine insist that using their ancestry as a mascot is insulting and demeaning, even racist.
Members of Maine’s Indian tribes pressured Skowhegan to change its nickname, but the district board narrowly voted to keep it in 2015.
Maulian Dana, the Penobscot Nation tribal ambassador and founder of the Notyourmascot Maine Chapter Facebook group, said the Wells vote is a good example of a school being responsive to community concerns about stereotyping and discrimination.
“Skowhegan had the chance to do the same thing and unfortunately they let a loud and vocal minority in the school board and town bully and threaten them into keeping racism and hate alive by keeping the mascot,” Dana said.
The discussion has been more difficult in Skowhegan, where the town and its traditions are closely intertwined with Native American themes.
The town seal depicts an Indian wearing a headdress, a mural in the Opera House shows an Indian spearing a fish in Skowhegan, and tradition says the town’s name means “a place to watch” sea-run fish scaling the falls of the Kennebec River. There also is a large mural on the wall of the high school gymnasium.
There are 11 members left on the 23-member SAD 54 school board that voted 11-9 to keep the Indians nickname in May 2015. Of those 11, eight voted to keep the name. In district elections held Tuesday, four incumbent school board members were re-elected, unopposed on the ballot.
Two of those re-elected Tuesday – Lynda Quinn and Harold Bigelow – are staunch supporters of keeping the Indians nickname.
The other two, Amy Rouse and Todd Smith, were not on the board in 2015.
“It’s not before the board now,” Rouse said this week, declining to comment further when asked about the topic.
Smith did not reply to a social media message requesting comment on the issue and did not respond to emails that were sent to all school board members this month seeking comment after it became apparent what the outcome would be in Wells.
In fact, none of the school board members responded to an email request for comment.
Board member Lynda Quinn said there is really nothing to discuss.
“We got rid of that mascot in 1990,” Quinn said this week. “That was the first time that we sat down with our local Native Americans who had expressed a concern about the names ‘Fighting Indians,’ ‘Running Indians’ and the little caricatures and the imagery we had around that high school. We thought that was reasonable – all they asked, and they said, ‘Please just don’t make fun of us’ – OK, that’s reasonable, so in 1990 all that cartoon stuff was painted away.”
Quinn said she doesn’t see anything wrong with the nickname when “probably 95 percent of the kids that go to that high school” have Native American blood, including her family.
‘DOING THE RIGHT THING’
But Dana said Skowhegan’s Indians nickname and imagery “continues to be an embarrassment and a black mark on a town, and many residents continue to be fed up with those on the school board who fight so hard to keep the mascot.”
“Those of us who are the true descendants of indigenous people of Maine are not honored by the mascot, and we have been working for years to see it retire,” she said. “And it will. It is only a matter of time.”
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights called for an end to the use of Native American images and team names by non-native schools in 2001, saying that “references, whether mascots and their performances, logos, or names, are disrespectful and offensive to American Indians and others who are offended by such stereotyping.”
The Cleveland Indians, under pressure from Major League Baseball, announced this year they would drop their “Chief Wahoo” logo starting in 2019.
School board member Derek Ellis of Skowhegan, who was not on the board in 2015, favors changing the Indians nickname even though he said he went to Skowhegan Area High School and was “one of the loudest ones on the bus screaming, ‘We are the Indians, mighty, mighty Indians.’”
But now he said he knows the difference.
“I think we have a golden opportunity to teach our kids that doing the right thing isn’t always easy,” Ellis said. “Sometimes we feel like a piece of us is being taken away. But if you step back and take a good look from outside, it’s hard to ignore the feelings of an entire race of people.
“I am 110 percent for treating all races with respect. The native people deserve that respect. We are the last town in the state to hold onto these antiquated ideals.”
During the debate in 2015, board member Harold Bigelow said that the “Indians” name is a source of pride in community, is the town’s heritage and is not racist.
“This is not a mascot,” Bigelow said at the time. “A mascot is a goat on a rope, a dog on a leash. This is spirit.”
Debate over using Native American images and nicknames dates back at least 40 years nationally, and to 2001 in Maine.
That’s when Scarborough High became the first school to change its name, dropping “Redskins” in favor of “Red Storm.” Husson University eliminated the “Braves” nickname and became the Eagles. Wiscasset High and Sanford High eliminated their “Redskins” nicknames. Wiscasset became the Wolverines, and Sanford is the Spartans. In Old Town, the nickname “Indians” was dropped and “Coyotes” was adopted.
Now, Wells is changing, too.
Kennebec Journal Sports Writer Drew Bonifant contributed to this report.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter:@Doug_Harlow
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