VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Westhill School District to utilize new mascot
Howe: Westhill schools have announced they will be changing their Warrior mascot following a state mandate that prohibits the use of any mascot depicting or referencing Indigenous peoples. SCAN-O cultural center representative and Onondaga Native Joie Hill felt that this is indicative of progress compared to the experiences she endured while protesting the University of North Dakota’s own controversial logo, the Fighting Sioux, years ago.
Hill: “Other students, non-Native students were really mad that we really wanted to have this mascot taken down. They were just spitting at us and calling us names, we were trying to say, ‘this is why it needs to be taken down.”
Howe: Dr. Aaron Luedtke, a history professor at Syracuse University, believes that one of the problems with these depictions is that they are erroneously stuck in the past, when the people they represent are part of thriving nations across the country today.
Luedtke: “When you take this caricature of Native American people and then you basically declare to the world ‘this is who we think Native Americans are’ and they’ll never get beyond that, you’re really doing a disservice to numerous different types of people.”
Track 2: Hill and Luedtke agreed that the way forward is to educate ourselves on the survivance of Indigenous peoples using real artifacts and lived experiences to understand why some of our familiar mascots need to be retired. Gabe Howe, NCC News
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — Westhill Central School Districts announced their commitment to change their school mascot, in accordance with a New York State mandate stating that a school’s mascot and logo must not contain any reference or depiction of Indigenous Peoples. To this end, Westhill has chosen to adopt the name Wolfpack, moving away from the current Warrior moniker.
Several other schools in the greater Syracuse area have also committed to making changes, including Liverpool, Weedsport, and Fulton, among many others in Central New York at large. For many, these changes may seem somewhat frivolous or perhaps even unreasonable, but some have been fighting for this type of change for years. One of those people is Onondaga Native Joie Hill, who recounted her experience while protesting on the University of North Dakota’s campus when they were still referred to as the Fighting Sioux.
“Other students, non-Native students were really mad that we really wanted to have this mascot taken down. They were just spitting at us and calling us names, we were trying to say, ‘this is why it needs to be taken down.”
Dr. Aaron Luedtke, a Native history professor at Syracuse University who has ancestry in the Suquamish and Duwamish nations, had a unique perspective on the damage that these depictions and logos, especially on a national level, have on Native peoples. Much of his scholarship and writing has specifically focused on the erasure and dehumanization of Native peoples over the centuries, and he believes that these logos have a part to play in continuing to perpetuate that sentiment.
“When you take this caricature of Native American people and then you basically declare to the world ‘this is who we think Native Americans are’ and they’ll never get beyond that, you’re really doing a disservice to numerous different types of people.”
As per the mandate, school districts in the state with mascots referencing Indigenous peoples commit to a change by July 1st, 2025. Several schools in the area have already picked new names. Westhill will adopt the “Wolfpack” name as of the aforementioned date, and Liverpool has selected “Legends” as its new iconography. Various other schools are still in the vetting process.