Pocatello High school is one among three other public high schools in the city of Pocatello, Idaho. Poky high’s mascot is a Native American chief replication of Cheif Pocatello a historical native leader to the Shoshone people. Within this, the high school openly resonates themselves as the ‘Pocatello Indians’ with spirit colors red, white, and blue. This is discriminatory for many reasons including the fact that native people are not Indian at all. The label “Indian” when referring to natives comes from colonialism and the inherent mass genocide of their people through Colonialism and the Christopher Columbus era. Not only that but including American colors of pride across it is intentionally washing out history the land the school is built on. The history in which colonizers skinned, sold, and enslaved native people.

I’ve heard many sides of the debate defending this behavior rooted in racism; such as reclamation of a dark historical time. Reclamation is not a factor within this. Native americans are / would be allowed to reclaim the word indian that was so painfully put against them, but native students are a minority in School District 25 schools. It is no longer acceptable to excuse wrongdoing for the sake of “preserving” a history that doesn’t belong to the people who defend it in the first place. Seek justice for Native people of Pocatello.