Jamestown Public School District has a long & proud history with football, and the city of Jamestown has rallied around our sports teams as a shining example of athletic success for our students throughout the years. With a renewed energy & focus on fighting racial injustice and with communities and individuals working hard to promote a culture of anti-racism personally & within their own communities, we would like to petition the Jamestown Public School District to change the name “Jamestown Red Raiders” and remove any Native American imagery from their logo & sports/school paraphernalia/buildings etc. We would also like to petition the school to refrain from requiring the marching band to participate in any chants or cheers that are inspired by Native American chanting.

The term “red raiders” has racist implications effecting the Native American community greatly. The Jamestown Red Raiders logo currently features a prominent “J” for Jamestown, but still displays decorative feathers. This display of feathers is a common nod to Native American culture, and implies an appropriation of Native American headwear.

“Native American cultural representatives and activists have expressed offense at what they deem the cultural appropriation of wearing and displaying of such headdresses, and other "indigenous traditional arts and sacred objects" by those who have not earned them, especially by non-Natives as fashion or costume. The controversy is part of a wider effort by Native American activists to highlight what they view as the ongoing cultural genocide against indigenous peoples in the United States and Canada.” Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_bonnet

The phrase “red raider” is a racist term derivative of the slur “redskin” and is inherently racist and harmful. 

“The pejoration of the term "redskin" arguably begins as soon as its introduction in the early 19th century. A linguistic analysis of 42 books published between 1875 and 1930 found that negative contexts for the use of "redskin" were significantly more frequent than positive ones. However, the use of the word "Indian" in a similarly selected set of books was nearly the same, with more frequent negative than positive contexts, indicating that it was not the term "redskin" that was loaded pejoratively, but that its usage represents a generally negative attitude towards its referent. The word was first listed in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary in 1898 as "often contemptuous." Sociologist Irving Lewis Allen suggests that slangidentifiers for ethnic groups based upon physical characteristics, including "redskin", are by nature derogatory, emphasizing the difference between the speaker and the target...Some Native American activists in the 21st century, in contradiction of the etymological evidence discussed above, assert that "redskin" refers directly to the bloody, red scalp or other body part collected for bounty...The term "red-skin" was, in fact used in conjunction with scalp hunting in the 19th century. In 1863 a Winona, Minnesota, newspaper, the Daily Republican, printed an announcement: "The state reward for dead Indians has been increased to $200 for every red-skin sent to Purgatory. This sum is more than the dead bodies of all the Indians east of the Red River are worth."A news story published by the Atchison Daily Champion in Atchison, Kansas, on October 9, 1885, tells of the settlers' "hunt for redskins, with a view of obtaining their scalps", worth $250. In his early career as the owner of a newspaper in South Dakota, L. Frank Baum wrote an editorial upon the death of Chief Sitting Bull in which he advocates the annihilation of all remaining Redskins in order to secure the safety of white settlers, and because "better that they die than live the miserable wretches that they are." When Hollywood westerns were most popular, roughly 1920–1970, the term "redskins" was often used to refer to Native Americans when war was imminent or in progress. In the Washington Redskins trademark dispute, the main issue was the meaning of the term in the period when the trademark registrations were issued, 1967–1990. The linguistic expert for the petitioner, Dr. Geoffrey Nunberg, successfully argued that whatever its origins, "redskins" was a slur at that time based upon passages from books and newspapers and movie clips, in which the word is inevitably associated with contempt, derision, condescension, or sentimental paeans to the noble savage.” Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redskin

Please note the following entry taken from http://www.ncai.org/proudtobe :

“About "Indian" Sports Mascots & Harm
Born in an era when racism and bigotry were accepted by the dominant culture, "Indian" sports brands have grown to become multi-million dollar franchises.

The intolerance and harm promoted by these “Indian” sports mascots, logos, or symbols, have very real consequences for Native people. 

Specifically, rather than honoring Native peoples, these caricatures and stereotypes are harmful, perpetuate negative stereotypes of America’s first peoples, and contribute to a disregard for the personhood of Native peoples.

As documented in a comprehensive review of decades of social science research, derogatory "Indian" sports mascots have serious psychological, social and cultural consequences for Native Americans, especially Native youth. Of today’s American Indian and Alaska Native population, those under the age of 18 make up 32 percent, and Native youth under the age of 24 represent nearly half, or 42 percent, of the entire Native population.

Most concerning in considering negative stereotypes of Native people, are the alarmingly high rates of hate crimes against Native people.  According to Department of Justice analysis, “American Indians are more likely than people of other races to experience violence at the hands of someone of a different race.”

These factors together indicate a very real need to take immediate action in a number of areas, including the removal of harmful images as well as the education of the general public, to diffuse additional hateful activity against Native peoples.”

During a time when the fight to end racial inequality is of highest priority and at a turning point in history, we insist that all parts of our community embrace the need to be actively anti-racist by making the changes necessary to be inclusive and respectful of all races & cultures. We have the opportunity to set an example for the youth of our city & make a lasting and meaningful impact on the Native community in our area by removing the racist name & imagery from the Jamestown Public School District sports team.