Schools and sports teams across the country have dropped Native American mascots and imagery, but in Michigan, several K-12 districts continue to use questionable monikers like warriors, chiefs and braves.
And three Michigan schools still use the term Redskins, seen as the most offensive to Native American communities.
“It is a racial slur and it is a term that should not be used in conversation in a school or at a work setting, or any setting for that matter,” said Daniel Levy, director of law and policy for the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, on the term Redskins. “To use it as a formal name for a school is, just unacceptable.”
Redskins is an offensive name “used as an insulting and contemptuous term for an American Indian,” according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
Camden-Frontier Schools in Hillsdale County, Sandusky Community Schools in Sanilac County and Saranac Community Schools in Ionia County are the Michigan districts that still use Redskins as mascots.
An additional 38 schools across the state continue to use Native American imagery.
In Michigan, 10 schools call themselves Warriors (Bay City Western, Birmingham Brother Rice, Woodhaven, Chippewa Hills, Fife Lake Forest, Grass Lake, North Huron, Port Huron Holland Woods, Chippewa Hills and Walled Lake Western). Eight schools go by Indians (Athens, Chesaning, Hartford, Newberry, Tahquamenon, Tecumseh, Tekonsha and White Cloud).
An additional eight schools go by Chiefs or Chieftains (Plymouth Canton, Capac, Cheboygan, Dowagiac, Huron, Port Huron Michigamme, Utica and White Pigeon); and six schools refer to themselves as a variation of Redmen or Big/Little Reds (Chippewa, Marquette, Milan, Port Huron Roosevelt, Port Huron and Lansing Sexton).
Two schools go by the Braves (Gladstone and Tawas), two schools go by Eskymos or Eskimos (Escanaba and C.W. Ottowa), DeTour goes by Raiders and Manistee goes by Chippewas.
Warren C. Swartz Jr., tribal president of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community in Baraga, said although there is a long history of using Native American-associated names and imagery to celebrate school spirit, he finds it “inappropriate and discriminatory.”
“I’ve seen racially insensitive nicknames and logos that alienates, discriminates, and mocks our Native American population,” Swartz said. “The names Redmen, Redskins, Eskymos and other derogatory monikers creates a toxic environment for students, divides communities, and prevents schools from evolving into institutions that respectfully serve all members of their communities.”
The Michigan Department of Civil Rights works with schools still using Native American imagery, encouraging them to rebrand.
“We’ve been working behind the scenes with those schools that are open to it, to help educate on why the issue was and is of importance... we also support those people who are raising the issues within their school system,” Levy said.
Saranac Community Schools Superintendent Jason Smith said the school board has been in conversations for a while on moving away from the Redskins name, particularly after the NFL’s Washington Football Team, previously known as the Redskins, announced its name change prior to the 2020 season.
The Saranac school board has consulted with the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi members in Dowagiac, who have been helpful throughout the process, Smith said. The district also sent a survey about potential changes in the 2020 school calendar to gauge community, student and alumni reactions.
Weighing a potential name change isn’t an easy decision for Amanda Kuiper, a 2020 graduate of Saranac High School who played softball while she was a student.
“I don’t necessarily have a problem with it, but I feel like I shouldn’t have a say because I’m not part of the Native American community,” Kuiper said. “But I would love to see Saranac have the same mascot.”
Smith said the school’s use of Redskins originated around the 1930s and was chosen because the small village along the Grand River was a thoroughfare for Native American tribes at the time.
Although the district still retains the name, changes to imagery used in Saranac Public Schools began in the early 1990s, Smith said.
“They’re going slow, not trying to hurry anything,” Smith said. “Either way, we just want to make sure we take our time and make sure we do our due diligence.”
Today, the chieftain images the school once used have been replaced with just ‘Saranac.’ The district’s website still displays a letter ‘S’ with headdress feathers.
Experts said using the term Redskins has real consequences.
“The use of the term is found to clearly affect students and their ability to learn, and it affects other students and their ability to have empathy and understand issues like this,” said Levy, of the state’s Civil Rights Department.
The use of Native American imagery in schools has been a longstanding issue for the state.
The Michigan Board of Education adopted a Resolution in 2003 that supports the elimination of Native American descriptors and mascots by all Michigan schools. It states in part “that their use has a detrimental effect on the educational achievement of American Indian students.”
In 2013, the MDCR filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, asking it to “issue an order prohibiting the continued use Native American mascots, names, nicknames, slogans, chants and/or imagery.”
“It’s something, as students, they should not have to deal with,” Levy said. “If you imagine slogans and things that opposing schools use on homecoming floats and you insert the name of a group of people who are sitting in the stands, it’s just not a healthy environment.”
Clinton Community Schools, in Lenawee County, officially decided to retire the Redskins name in July 2020. Starting this school year, the district is now uses Redwolves. The move comes a decade after the district held a community-wide vote to retain the name. The district decided said at the time it would keep the name in place until the NFL’s Washington Redskins changed, too.
The district did at the time make moves to remove imagery that depicted Native Americans.
The Clinton Board of Education said in a July 2020 statement: “The Clinton Community Schools has always been and will continue to be an inclusive environment where every child matters. We are also a district that believes in keeping their promises and acting with integrity.”
Paw Paw Community Schools, in west Michigan’s Van Buren County, also changed its name from the Redskins to the Red Wolves in June 2020.
The term was previously used on signs, spirit gear and other imagery, becoming a source of contention in the community.
Images had been removed in 2015 from all but the high school. In 2017, the board voted to keep the mascot name despite protests demanding its removal.
The U.S. Department of Education began investigating the district in 2019 after the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan complained of a “racially hostile educational environment.” The investigation remained open as of Oct. 1, 2021, according to the Office of Civil Rights website.
Paw Paw Superintendent Rick Reo acknowledged at the time that the investigation led to talks of change, but said the decision was made because of how students were being treated and the division the issue caused.
The “impetus behind the investigation has something to do with how our students are being treated,” he said.
A billboard visible from I-94 was erected by the Michigan Coalition Against Racism in 2018 protesting the Paw Paw High School mascot.
The billboard displayed the dictionary definition of Redskin as “very offensive and should be avoided.”
Reo said the district has been undergoing a comprehensive rebranding, thanks to a $216,000 grant awarded by the Native American Heritage Fund (NAHF) last year.
“We’ve been able to purchase new signage, team uniforms, wrestling mats, banners and other items,” Reo said. “We’ve also redesigned and refinished our gym floors in our middle school and high school. Additional projects related to the rebranding will take place during the 2021-22 school year.”
The goal of the NAHF is to promote positive relationships between Michigan’s public and private K-12 schools, colleges, universities, local governments and the state’s 12 federally recognized Native American tribes.
Since changing items like logos on scoreboards, gym floors, apparel and school letterhead can be costly, NAHF provide grants for schools to do so.
“Those costs really do add up and when a lot of sovereign nations were discussing this prior to this fund, that was the roadblock that school districts and learning institutes were coming up against when they were deciding to make the change,” said NAHF chairperson Jamie Stuck, who represents the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi.
This year, eleven Michigan schools, districts and colleges across the state received a total of over $480,000 in funds from NAHF to rebrand racially insensitive mascots and improve school curriculum.
Levy said backlash involving rebranding school names usually stems from community members not wanting to appear racist.
“For people, particularly high school years, high school sports are highlights of your life,” Levy said. “They don’t want that to be taken from them because there’s another name there... they don’t like the notion that their leather jackets and souvenirs that they earned back then would now be considered racist.
“They rebel against the idea that there is any racism intended and then our position is, it doesn’t really matter whether it’s intended, it’s having that effect and therefore in the school setting should not be used.”
Seeing the progress that has been made in rebranding schools within the last few years, Levy said he expects that the Redskins name will eventually be removed from all Michigan schools.
“I think it’s important we all focus on the student welfare, rather than our personal goals,” Levy said.
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