‘BARBARIC PRACTICE’
‘BARBARIC PRACTICE’
Debate on the school’s nickname
issue has generated letters to the Department of Education and the Maine Human
Rights Commission and has gotten the attention of the Bangor chapter of the NAACP.
Smith has singled out York’s
post about the scalp towel as an offensive extension of the larger issue.
“Scalping is a barbaric practice
that involves removing the top of one’s head with a sharp implement to kill a
person,” Smith wrote in a letter to the editor of the Morning Sentinel about
the Facebook post, sent Sept. 3. “In 1775 the English Spencer Phips
Proclamation was a call to those in America to use scalping to rid the country
of Penobscot people citing their ungodly status.”
“It is insulting to me that
these people in leadership roles in the community feel entitled to mock and
poke fun at the history and tribes that they insist they ‘honor’ with their
Indian mascot,” she said in the letter.
She said Wednesday that prices
were set for the scalps of men, women and children in an effort to exterminate
the tribe.
The scalp towel post is
“getting attention nationwide as a heinous and flippant display of bigotry and
racism,” she said.
Scalps were commonly referred
to as “redskins,” one reason it is considered a racial slur by many Indians
today, according to the website www.native-languages.org.
Doctors, lawyers, educators and
business leaders have called on the school district to drop the name because it
is offensive to the people that supporters say it’s meant to honor — Maine
Indian tribes.
Others in the community,
including members of the SAD 54 board, are holding fast to their belief that
keeping the Indians mascot name is their heritage and what they say is their
way of channeling the power and strength of the people who first settled on the
banks of the Kennebec River, which runs through Skowhegan.
Neither side is budging in the
debate, which in the last year has turned ugly with charges of racism, insults
and intimidation.
While the school still says
“Home of the Skowhegan Indians” on its sign, sports uniforms don’t have the
word Indians on them and haven’t for years.
During one of the public
meetings leading up to the school board vote, senior
class president Jasmine Gordon said
restrictions had been imposed on use of the word “Indians” on apparel used by
sports teams at the high school, including headbands ordered for the basketball
team last year that said “Skowhegan Indians” but were never used.
“They were told they were not
allowed to wear them because they thought it was disrespectful. They couldn’t
even sell them at the games,” Gordon said at the time.
Colbry said Tuesday the
headbands weren’t used because they had been bought by the booster club and
hadn’t been approved by the school.
“We probably would not have
approved it then, and we probably would not approve it now,” he said. “It’s not
consistent with board policy. They bought them before they got them approved.
They were not used.”
But Gordon’s words in March
echo what many connected to the school feel about the issue.
“Most of the students were
upset that they were considering changing the name, because we’ve been Indians
ever since we started school, and we feel like we’re kind of honoring our
heritage, and people are trying to take it away when all we want to do is try
and represent them in a positive way, never in a negative way.”
But Smith sees it differently.
“Would it be honorable to name
a school mascot ‘The Jews’?” she asked in the letter to the editor. “Could we
have memorabilia for the sporting events depicting gas chambers and
concentration camps? Could we tell offended Jews that they should get over it
because we know a Jew who is fine with it?”
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‘BARBARIC PRACTICE’
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