Tribes Refuse Board On Mascot Meeting Schools Wanted To ‘Get Clear’; Indians Say Issue Is Already Clear

Fri., June 6, 1997

By John Craig johnc@spokesman.com

The Colville School Board was rebuffed in its request to meet with the Colville Confederated Tribes’ governing council to discuss a tribal request that the district change its Indian mascots.

Rick Cole, Colville school superintendent, said the school board wanted to attend Thursday’s tribal council meeting as a first step in honoring the tribes’ request to rename various landmarks and school mascots.

Instead, he said, the school board will take up the issue on its own at its June 17 meeting.

Cole said school officials had wanted to “get clear” on what tribal leaders wanted, citing “inaccuracies in the (tribal) resolution” calling for an end to mascots such as the Colville High School Indians. He declined to elaborate, but the resolution refers to the Colville Junior High Savages, a name that was changed about five years ago to Warriors.

Tribal Chairman Joe Pakootas said he thinks the tribal council has made itself clear: It wants the school district to quit using Native American mascots. Pakootas noted the council sent two representatives to a May 20 school board meeting. “We didn’t feel that there was any further need for meeting at this time,” Pakootas said. “It’s up to them whether they want to follow through with the resolution.”

Pakootas said he thinks Indians “are the only race in the world” that is used for school mascots. “They don’t use African American names, or Caucasians or Honkies or anything like that.”

He said he expects more discussion on the question of asking Nespelem Elementary/Middle School, in the heart of the Colville Indian Reservation, to change its Savages mascot. The Colville Tribes also may ask the Spokane Tribe to join them in a general discussion of how to deal with Indian mascots, Pakootas said.

The mascot at Wellpinit , in the heart of the Spokane Reservation, is the Redskins.

“I don’t know if it’s right for Native Americans to use Native American mascots,” Pakootas said. “I don’t really have a feeling for it at this time.”

, DataTimes

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