Native Americans are not mascots or costumes. Their culture is not "school pride". Yet for more than one hundred years, Loveland High School, a high school in the Thompson School District of CO, has proudly used a mascot which not only appropriates Native American culture, but displays it as a caricature, or a single character.
The mascot is the Indian.
Not only is it an outdated word with a complicated history, but it helps create an exaggerated and offensive image that was widely used throughout the school for decades. As recently as 2014, students still wore headdresses to school functions, and practiced offensive cheers and gestures. Now, the school still has Native imagery on display that some say is offensive. These depictions of natives as mascots is shown to lead to negative effects on the mental health of Native American children, as well as a perception of Native Americans as aggressive. This mascot switch has plenty of precedence and would in no way be a radical new idea. LHS has already done outreach with an area tribe, but more needs to happen. Our demands are as follows:
Remove all offensive imagery, including the images of native people in headdresses with exaggerated features.
Provide some form of extra education and or community outreach and fundraising to raise awareness about native American issues.
If there is not total removal of the Indian mascot, these points above are absolutely necessary.
Communication and meetings with area tribes in the CO area.
If it is decided that we must remove all references to the "Indian" or "tribe", the school should take student ideas for a new mascot. This may not be necessary. Further communication with area tribes is needed to decide this.
These are the demands of us, the students, who are leading this movement.