Tribe: Braves, Warriors, Savages mascots should go

The Nez Perce Tribe voiced support for removing Native American-based mascots or nicknames used at Sacajawea Middle School in Lewiston, Lewis-Clark State College and the Salmon River School District in Riggins.

Chantel Greene, vice chairwoman of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee, said the mascots don’t represent an accurate history of indigenous communities and should be changed to avoid the disparaging connotation they carry.

“We accept the process to ultimately retire or change the names, so that we can move past some of the historical trauma,” Greene said on behalf of the executive committee.

All three schools discontinued imagery associated with their mascots — the Sacajawea Braves, the Lewis-Clark State College Warriors and the Salmon River Savages — but kept the names.

While some view the mascots as projecting power or honoring the tribe’s history, Greene disagreed.

“There is a contradicting thinking behind it,” she said. “The actual histories (of indigenous people) are very brutal. There’s a basic disregard for what the true histories are.”

Greene said the tribe stands behind a letter it sent to the Lewiston School District in 2014 that asked for the removal of the Braves mascot. The Nez Perce Tribe also supports a letter the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes sent last summer to the Idaho State Board of Education, the governor’s office and the Legislature, asking for a statewide ban on Native American-based mascots.

The letter stated the mascots “propagate harmful attitudes and perceptions to and about Indian people, leading to past, current and future misperceptions about tribes and of Indian people.”

Community members approached the Lewiston School Board in recent months to get rid of the Braves mascot, but no action was taken.

After receiving public comments on the topic at a school board meeting this week, Lewiston Superintendent Bob Donaldson said the school district had reached out to the tribe.

Requests to rename Sacajawea Middle School in its entirety also were brought forth.

“I believe we would be in favor of that as well,” Greene said.

Greene said the tribe is in favor of creating a dialogue as discussions about the removal of Native American-based mascots continue.

She said she also would like to see a more comprehensive history of the Nez Perce people offered at area schools, to create a more cohesive understanding between native and nonnative students.

“Native American students in this area do represent the largest subpopulation, even in the Lewiston School District,” Greene said. “I know our native culture and histories to not be depicted. They are not an actual representation of who we truly are, and we really want to get out the true histories — the good, the bad, the ugly.”

The Nezperce School District decided this week to retire its longstanding “Indians” name, and the Washington Redskins football team also removed its mascot.

Those changes are steps in the right direction, Greene said.

Tomtas may be contacted at jtomtas@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2294. Follow her on Twitter @jtomtas.