The Mascot of Braintree High School is the Wamp, an offensive appropriation of Chief Wampatuck of the Mattakeesett tribe. In claiming to honor Chief Wampatuck, the school fails to acknowledge Native Americans who have asserted time and again that they find the use of Native American imagery and names in mascots as offensive, including as stated by Faries Gray, a descendent of Chief Wampatuck himself.
In saying that their portrayal of Chief Wampatuck honors him, over the dissents of of Native Americans, Braintree Public Schools has assumed power and control over how Native Americans choose to define their ethnic image. Their choice to disregard the agency of Native Americans to narrate their own image is particularly egregious considering the long history of forced assimilation that Native Americans have suffered in this country.
Furthermore, as it is for a public educational institution, the use of this mascot is particularly inappropriate, given that schools are places for students to unlearn racial stereotypes. Not only that, but there are Native American students enrolled in Braintree and the use of the logo transforms these educational spaces into racially hostile spaces for those students and other students who recognize that hostility.
Finally, we ask that leaders in Braintree follow the guidance of the American Indian Mental Health Association which has stated: "As a group of mental health providers, we are in agreement that using images of American Indians as mascots, symbols, caricatures, and namesakes for non-Indian sports teams, businesses, and other organizations is damaging to the self-identity, self-concept, and self-esteem of our people." It's time to change the mascot.