Below is a letter of support from Maulian Dana, Tribal Ambassador to Penobscot Nation in Maine. Please know that it is a huge honor to have an entire indigenous tribe, composed of over 2,000 Native Americans, endorse this campaign for social justice. Let us also recognize how shameful it is for our school administrators to ignore the testimony of people directly impacted by our community's complacency!

I attended Austin Road Elementary School, Mahopac Middle School, and Mahopac High School. I was lucky enough to have interacted with staff and faculty who taught respect and understanding through actively listening to perspectives that challenged my own. I urge our superintendent, school board, and trustees to reflect upon the values taught in their educational facilities. Perhaps then, we can engage in simply conversation to become a more inclusive Mahopac?

~Sincerely,

Daniel Ehrenpreis

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To Whom it May Concern,

I am writing to express my support for the efforts to remove the racially insensitive and harmful Indian mascot in the Mahopac school district.  I serve as the appointed Ambassador the Penobscot Nation, one of five Indigenous Nations in Maine. My role is to serve as the government representative and diplomat for my tribe.  Last year in working with the Maine State Legislature I was able to help pass two pieces of legislation, one was to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day; and the other was a ban on Indian mascots.  We are the first state in the nation to accomplish the latter.

I have been active in advocating for the removal in these mascots for twenty years now. I began as a teenager when I saw peers at local high schools acting out stereotypical and demeaning behaviors that diminished and discriminated against my racial and spiritual identity. The fake feathers, war paints, dancing and hollering all were extremely harmful to me as a child who had been raised to view my culture as sacred and worthy of respect. It made no sense to me that others could wear my existence like a costume. As I grew older and developed more of an understanding of why these mascots cause harm I found a large amount of professional research and data that details why my feelings were valid and accurate. I would encourage you to read supporting documentation that will be submitted to you by myself and others about why keeping these mascots is detrimental to students and community members of all races.

Below please find my testimony that I submitted in support of our bill here in Maine that was signed into law by Governor Janet Mills in 2019:

Testimony in Support of LD944: An Act to Ban Native American Mascots by Representative Benjamin Collins by request of Ambassador Maulian Dana of the Penobscot Nation Submitted to: The Education and Cultural Affairs Committee March 25, 2019 Senator Millett, Representative Kornfield, and Honorable Members of the Committee, Thank you for taking the time to consider this important legislation and for taking public input at this stage of the bill. l know better than anyone that this is an issue that stirs passionate debate on both sides and I encourage you to consider not just the sensationalized nature of people debating a controversial topic but look closer and examine the facts and realities. I will present many factual arguments as to why this bill is the right move for Maine and also my perspective as an indigenous woman who has grown up in a reservation community and raises my children in that community, children who are Penobscot Citizens and at ages 10 and 12 will be high school students very soon. This bill is important for us all on a policy level but deeply important to me personally. Let s start with facts. You will hear many opinions on this today and some of them will try to discredit the factual evidence we can provide. lt is a fact that Indian mascot use is harmful and adds to the intergenerational trauma of indigenous people. It is a fact that we have the highest rates of suicide of any group. It is a fact that children as young as 8 have suicidal ideations in our community. It is a fact that we suffer high rates of alcoholism, drug abuse, mental health struggles, and poverty. It is a fact that the societal acceptance of Indian mascots increases the impact of all of these plagues on our people. When people see us as less than human they treat us as such. When people steal and misuse our identity they render us and the totality of the indigenous heritage and experience invisible. When you think you can call yourself an Indian because it is your high school mascot it is a fact that you are carrying out racism and privilege against those of us who are actual Indians and have requested that you stop your behavior. lt is also a fact that under Maine law it is a crime to identity as a tribal nation when you are not one. lt is a fact that many scholarly studies have been done on this and all of them have called for the end of Indian mascot use because of the harm it causes to Indigenous students and all students. It is a disservice to the people of Maine to allow a harmful practice in the schools. l will provide these studies as supporting documents to this testimony. I started my activism around Indian mascot use when l was in high school and watched the Nokomis Warriors play the Skowhegan Indians play a basketball game. I was watching at home with my father who was Chief of the Nation at that point so l had a front row seat to many of the issues facing the Wabanaki tribes of Maine the battles over constantly defending our homeland, river, and inherent sovereignty. When we sat down to watch the game together, l experienced a turning point in my life. The fans, students, bands, cheerleaders, and some players from both teams were exemplifying all the reasons that Indian mascots are harmful. Among the shocking behaviors l witnessed there were fake feathers, fake Indian regalia, fake war chanting and stereotypical hand motions, hand over the mouth Hollywood Indian war whooping, and silly looking dancing. A gymnasium full of people of all ages from two communities in my state were all mocking and marginalizing the existence and culture l had been taught to respect and honor things that l held so close to the roots of my identity. l was hurt, l was confused, and I was angry. . . And l wasn't alone. l was able to be mentored and supported by various adults that were fighting to work to end these mascots and l started a now two decades career educating on these mascots and how they affect my people and advocating for their removal so that Indigenous people in Maine have equality and are not discriminated against or degraded because of our race. We are the only group that is used in this manner. Often times people point to Vikings, Cowboys, or Irish themed mascots so invalidate our fight but these other groups are occupations or Nationalities. We are the only racial group used this way. The most challenging case I have seen in my lengthy work on this both prior to my Ambassador appointment and during is the Skowhegan High School mascot. After a long and messy battle the school board voted last month to retire the Indian mascot and this made national news and is widely celebrated as a great thing for Maine and part of what we hope is a new dawn in tribal state relations. A resistance has formed in a group calling themselves Skowhegan Indian Pride. The name is misleading seeing as how the Skowhegan area and surrounding districts are less than 2 percent Native American according to recent census data. They are protesting the mascot removal and attempting to essentially blackmail the school board by making problems for the budget to pass in the town unless the mascot is reinstated. Passing this bill would free up the good people of MSAD54 from this nonsense and allow them to focus on education and the important duties of a school board. Skowhegan Indian Pride has been operating as a racist organization since the 2015 vote that the school board made to keep the mascot. They have produced memes mocking alcoholism in indigenous populations, suggested that l personally should be raped and passed around a tipi" and that my body be traded for beaver grease , they have used slurs against Indigenous people on numerous occasions, threatened to intimidate me with a "scalp towel" (a relic from Skowhegan games many years ago depicting a hand holding a clump of hair which is a reference to the torture, murder, and hunting of Wabanaki Nations of Maine), and many more aggressive and racist statements emboldened by their mascot. Now that they don t have it anymore they are attempting to manipulate the processes of the district under watch of elected school board members. However this bill is not about Skowhegan. This bill is about landmark legislation that sends a message of truth, honor, respect, and a clear message that Maine will not support racism and that the government represents all of its citizens. These mascots are changing all over the country and other states are looking into statewide bans. ln Cleveland the Indians baseball team has agrees to retire the racist Chief Wahoo because of pressure from Tribal Nations and this is a huge step that we hope to keep chipping away at a national level. There is also a battle going on against the Washington DC football team who funds an organization name Native American Guardians Association (NAGA) in order to make it look like Indigenous People are accepting of their racial slur mascot.. NAGA has also made an appearance in Skowhegan. They are not affiliated with any indigenous Nation and some of their members have been proven to be lying about their heritage. This is a very widespread and complicated battle over these mascots and Maine has a chance to be a leader for the Nation in taking a stand over removing this racist practice from learning environments. I regret not being there in person for the hearing but our circle of support has grown into a movement and we will be represented very well. l would love to meet and discuss this bill with any of you personally and will attend the work session. l am out of town for a family matter but will be back very soon. Thank you for reading and I hope you listen with an open heart and mind to the request of all the Tribal Nations of Maine that we do not want to be a mascot.

I am thankful for the work of those in your community who are leading this important change and I am happy to answer any further questions you may have. The Indian mascot ban in Maine has been an important step for my state and has already produced a great deal of positive changes. I am hopeful you can listen to those requesting this change with an open heart and mind and that you can think about those of us who are targeted and most affected by these mascots when considering your options.

Here is a link to a Ted Talk I recently gave on this subject:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVAdGXrU60w

Thank you for your time,

Maulian Dana

Tribal Ambassador, Penobscot Nation