Mascot Flap To Continue In Colville Tempers Flare At Discussion To Change High School Moniker

Tempers flared and T-shirts flapped before the Colville School Board voted Tuesday to continue studying a Native American request to get a new mascot for the Colville High School Indians.

The decision came after 75 minutes of discussion that got so heated Chairwoman Sue Fogle ordered a temper-cooling recess.

During the break, Inchelium resident Martina Whelshula offered to help with the community educational process school officials insist is necessary.

Board member Carol Villers’ motion formally embraced Whelshula’s offer.

Whelshula is a member of the Colville Confederated Tribes, which asked the school district to change Indian-related mascots at its high school, junior high and middle school.

Before the recess, Whelshula chided the board with a Colville High T-shirt bearing a caricature of an Indian with one fist clenched threateningly and the other fist wielding a tomahawk.

“This is the most disgusting image,” Whelshula said.

Such depictions confuse and discourage Native American children about their culture, she said. For example, Whelshula said her son hides his long braids at school to keep other children from teasing him with war whoops.

“This is not us. This is not who we are,” Whelshula said, pointing to the T-shirt. “We don’t value warriors. We were peacemakers.”

Seven others, mostly non-Indian residents, joined Whelshula in supporting the tribes’ 3-month-old request for the school district to change its mascots. Only one person, Colville businesswoman Denise Whitten, publicly opposed changing the high school mascot.

“I have never heard the name being misused or abused,” Whitten said, noting she was an athlete and cheerleader at the school before graduating in 1980. “We’re talking about 90-plus years of history and tradition in our community.”

That tradition, she said, gives children “a sense of belonging” in a fast-paced, rapidly changing world. Whitten said she thinks the Colville tribal council should honor the assurances of previous councils in 1992 and 1994 that the tribal government had no objection to the high school mascot.

Superintendent Rick Cole reiterated his previous assertions that the tribal council should engage in a public discussion with the school board to prevent misunderstandings and help district patrons understand why a change is needed.

The tribal council sent two members to address the school board in May, and feels its position is clear without more discussion.

Colville resident Christine Wilson likened the situation to a woman asking a man to quit calling her “girl,” “chick” or “babe.” The man can’t expect any further conversation until he quits using the offensive names.

Lou Stone, a Colville High graduate and tribal member, said he felt “bushwhacked” at last month’s high school centennial by a 473-18 alumni vote against any name change. He and others also objected to school officials’ inclusion of two totem poles and a sculpture in a list of expenses a name change might cause.

Stone said tribal members aren’t concerned about the art, and he suggested the totem poles be retained as a teaching tool. Teachers could explain the cultural mistake of erecting a coastal totem pole in honor of Indians here who never made totem poles.

As Stone grew more strident, board member Villers objected to what she said was his insults and misrepresentation of people’s statements.

“I find this intolerable,” she said, and Stone threw those words back at her.

Fogle recessed the meeting at that point, and board members came back in a better humor after a hallway chat with Whelshula.

Whelshula, an educational consultant as well as an adjunct instructor for Community Colleges of Spokane, said she hopes to show Colville residents how the high school mascot offends and degrades Native Americans.

“I don’t think it will be a slow process at all,” she said.

, DataTimes