What’s in a nickname? Minnesota’s replacement of American Indian mascots puts state at odds with Trump 

In late May at the behest of President Donald Trump Secretary of Schooling Linda McMahon ventured north to Massapequa High School on Long Island McMahon was there to say that Massapequa High School was right to keep its Chiefs nickname and accompanying logo of an alternately angry and solemn-looking man with a head festooned with blue and gold feathers A New York statute outlawing the logo and other American Indian mascots was unlawful she commented Later the tuition secretary instructed the Justice Department to investigate the New York Department of Coaching for civil rights violations Why does any of this matter to Minnesota Because Minnesota and about a dozen other states according to the National Congress of American Indians has a law basically the same as New York s In Gov Tim Walz signed a measure that bans citizens schools from using a name symbol or image associated with an American Indian tribe The measure was modified this spring to make it easier for schools to get out of the name change But even before the Trump administration s involvement on the subject efforts to enforce the mascot ban were scattershot in Minnesota For one there is no penalty for not obeying the law In fact the Minnesota Department of Instruction does not even track a school district s compliance according to Sam Snuggerud a department spokesperson The whole process has been about as gray as you can get disclosed Pat Rendle superintendent of the Deer River School District in northern Minnesota which is mulling keeping the name Warriors while removing any American Indian imagery A handful of districts have to no avail even petitioned the state for money so they can hire outside consultants with professional mascot progress experience Why should I care about the use of American Indian mascots The movement to eradicate American Indian mascots from schools and sports teams has been around since at least the first year the National Congress of American Indians passed a resolution on the subject The mascots create a false narrative around who are Native people Coby Klar a spokesperson for the National Congress of American Indians announced in an interview It paints us in a historic context rather than a present one Studies have documented the mental toll of the mascots For example a paper in the journal of Race Ethnicity and Instruction identified that American Indian students exposed to images of cartoonish or warlike Native American mascots are prone to becoming more depressed or hostile The American Psychological Association has for decades lobbied for the erasure of such mascots Their argument is that schools are places to learn yet these mascots are teaching stereotypical misleading and too often insulting images of American Indians How triumphant have mascot removal efforts been Thirty-three years ago the Metrodome hosted Super Bowl XVI between the Washington Redskins and Buffalo Bills Leading up to the big championship civil rights groups marched the streets of downtown Minneapolis saying the Redskins must junk their racist name This is one protester at the time was quoted as saying The name of your football group has got to be changed And so the Redskins mascot was done away with in CC Hovie a spokesperson for the Association on American Indian Affairs noted that while progress has been slow there have been changes both in professional sports leagues and school districts across the country But efforts to switch out mascots can be influenced by the political discussion of a given moment The Trump announcement is not the period at the end of the sentence Hovie declared But it definitely makes it more challenging if that becomes the prevailing discourse This can cut both solutions According to Klar the racial reckoning that came from George Floyd s murder spurred several states to reexamine possibly racist imagery And certain states already had bans on the books Klar cites Oregon where each school district either rid themselves of Native mascots or got approval from a sovereign Indian nation to keep their name The Minnesota law has a similar exception The original bill required approval from all Minnesota tribal nations to retain a mascot associated with American Indians The amended statute requires only the go-ahead of the school s closest tribal nation Countless schools were asking for that variance commented Sen Mary Kunesh DFL-New Brighton the bill s author So we made it less complicated this session You commented Minnesota enforcement has been scattershot Again apparently no one in Minnesota has a tally of what school districts have Native American mascots That explained as part of the law school districts with Native American mascots were sought to file reports with the Legislature s mentoring committees which Kunesh chairs on the Senate side and Legislative Reference Library indicating their mascot replacement progress A dozen districts filed such dossiers a inadequate saying they moved forward with changes Related Lawmakers vexed and divided on funding Minnesota schools At Gibbon Fairfax Winthrop in south-central Minnesota the district truly moved over last Tuesday from Thunderbird to Firebird School superintendent Kelly Smith declared the law s timing was good since the district is set to open new facilities Financially it was fortunate Smith commented A lot of the changes were just thrown into the new school building project The uniforms will obviously be the greatest cost The Sleepy Eye school district also in southern Minnesota knows it will change from Indians to the Red Storm But Superintendent John Cselovski broadcasted that the district demands to complete the shift Still other districts are not sure of their next move Rendle from Deer River says his district wants to keep the Warriors nickname but nix elements of the logo like a spear and a feather My sense is that warriors are not particular with any group Rendle noted I m a former Marine and I m a coach and we use the term for lots of different reasons The superintendent did say that he is open to working with Deer River s nearest tribal nation the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe on a permissible mascot But other districts have yet to start the replacement process In Benson Superintendent Dennis Laumeyer noted it would cost million to ditch their Braves logo which as of now consists of a scarlet letter B and a gold and scarlet-colored feather Laumeyer itemized these costs as including replacing scoreboards furniture and branding and sanding as well as redesigning gym floors and replacing track The superintendent also called for an outside consultant to assist with evolving a new mascot One simple idea is keeping the B which could stand for Benson and removing the feather In an email Laumeyer commented Benson lacks the funding for a new mascot The money would have to come from the school general fund meaning the funds would have to come from the classroom Laumeyer stated Since this is a mandate it is essential for the state to pay for laws they pass and mandates they require for schools Kunesh pushed for mascot replacement funding she commented but it was a victim of a belt-tightening learning budget But when urged why there was also no money set aside amid the rosier fiscal setting of Kunesh a descendent of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe commented that decision was made partly on principle There are people who look at it as a disgraceful hurtful action and we should not pay for their disrespect she commented How does the Trump mascot announcement affect Minnesota McMahon the mentoring secretary called the New York state law an absurd program since it is prohibiting the use of Native American mascots while allowing mascots derived from European national origin McMahon cited Dutchmen and Huguenots as examples A meager west of the Hudson examples might include Trojans and Fighting Irish She reported mascots like the Chiefs celebrate Native American history In discussions with her Republican colleagues Kunesh stated the only blowback against the mascot law was the cost No one claimed the measure was a double standard by permitting names linked to European origin or that it silenced celebrations of Native history Kunesh commented she is unsure how federal action will disrupt the implementation process I am definitely keeping an eye on that she noted You just never know from day-to-day what the federal regime might direct the states to do CB Baga a civil rights lawyer in Minneapolis at Maslon LLP stated McMahon s missive is merely a position letter with no legal weight Still it is an indicator of how the Trump administration may pursue legal actions against states with American Indian mascot bans If the Supreme Court rules on the issue Baga stated that s when it becomes law for Minnesota The post What s in a nickname Minnesota s replacement of American Indian mascots puts state at odds with Trump appeared first on MinnPost