Paying Homage Cheney High Uses Its Native American Mascot To Give Students Lessons In History And Diversity

Walking through Cheney High School’s front doors, you might not notice Chief Black Hawk at first.

But once you do, it’s hard to keep your eyes from wandering up to the dramatic image.

Situated well overhead on one of the lobby’s walls, Black Hawk looks out over passing students with a regal face. His muscular physique and spear belie the philosophy of diplomacy and peace he eventually embraced.

The 8-by-6 foot painting, mounted during a ceremony Sept. 16, was commissioned by the high school to pay homage to Black Hawk, the school’s longtime mascot.

Now, the school is using the painting to teach students about Native American history, art and school pride.

Volunteer students learn about the technique of the painting and Black Hawk’s history, then give 15 minute presentations to staff and students.

Senior Justin Juel is the lead presenter of the four students who have volunteered. Eager and excited, he says Chief Black Hawk embodies what Cheney High School is all about.

“He’s peaceful and not stuck to one culture,” Juel said.

“Black Hawk kind of symbolizes us as a people.”

Art instructor Melvie Strampe created and coordinates the presentations.

“By teaching them about the painting, I hope that students and staff will develop a sense of ownership of the piece,” she said.

Juel has already talked with dozens of classes and sometimes gives up to 10 presentations a day.

As Juel tells students about the painting during a presentation, he takes on a scholarly tone. Carefully, he describes various aspects of the piece. Words like texture, power points and composition roll competently off his tongue.

“Another aspect that I really enjoy about this painting is the background,” he tells a group during a recent lecture. The artist’s use of yellow brings the chief into broad relief, he points out.

After explaining the piece, he answers questions and tries to engage the group in conversation.

As the program just started, not many students know much about their new painting.

But those who have seen it are impressed.

“It’s really neat lookin’,” said senior Becki Carlin. “It stands out.”

Student body President Joseph Wulczynski said the $7,500 painting was a good investment, and appropriate.

“It’s not derogatory,” he said. “When it comes down to it, we’re honoring someone who may have been looked over in the history books.”

Chief Black Hawk has been the Cheney High School’s mascot since 1927, when Illinois native Florence Fryer, a new teacher at the time, recommended adopting the chief to symbolize the school. Fryer retired from the school after 40 years.

Recently, schools nationwide have been rethinking their use of Indians as mascots. In 1993, Washington’s Board of Education asked schools to review the appropriateness of mascots to ensure that they were free from bias or derogatory connotations.

In response, schools statewide changed or modified their mascots. Some schools changed their mascots - Eastern Washington University, for example - and some, like North Central High School, are in the process.

In 1993, Cheney High School decided to keep its mascot after surveying the community and school, but with some alterations, said Principal Jerry Knott.

The school stopped depicting Chief Black Hawk with a tomahawk, removed an image of a chief from the floor of the basketball court and discontinued its tradition of dressing a student up in Native American garb with full headdress during football games.

It was then that the school thought that a tasteful portrait of the chief, as opposed to a caricature, would help students and staff better understand their mascot, Knott said.

The school set about to research the project. “I was really glad that our school put the time and effort - this is our sixth year - trying to get this off the ground,” said history teacher Lincoln Bryant.

Part of that effort was sending Bryant on a fact-finding mission to Chicago, in Black Hawk’s native Illinois, where he researched the Sac chief’s history and even interviewed Chicago Mayor Richard Daly.

He learned that the historic Native American chief was a courageous and thoughtful leader who spoke six languages and discouraged his people from drinking alcohol. Black Hawk also wrote his own biography, which is now abstracted in the beginning of the school’s student handbook.

“I was born at the Sac Village on Rock River in 1767 and now am in my 67th year,” he wrote. “I was not born to be a chief or shaman, but rather an ordinary person who was confronted by extraordinary challenges.”

Those challenges included being voted chief of his tribe and fighting a decades-long war he eventually lost to better-equipped U.S. Army troops. He negotiated a surrender that included the displacement of his people by settling European immigrants.

Throughout that ordeal, however, Black Hawk’s eloquence and strength of character earned him the respect of the five presidents in office while he fought against the U.S. government - Thomas Jefferson through Andrew Jackson - and also Abraham Lincoln, who fought in the Black Hawk War in 1832 as a captain in the Illinois state militia.

Carlos Vigil, a local artist, was commissioned to paint the chief.

He approached the school in 1993 for the commission after his son, Nicolas - one of Vigil’s 11 children to graduate from Cheney High School - told him about the school’s desire to tastefully honor its mascot.

A commercial artist by trade, Vigil, 64, is also an accomplished fine artist.

He researched the chief extensively and did “a lot of looking with very little action” as he painted. At times, his work was almost a meditation, he explained.

“What I was trying to do was understand Chief Black Hawk,” he said. “I came to develop a real admiration for the man.”

Art teacher Strampe raves about the painting.

“It’s a masterful piece,” she said.

Vigil expertly uses color and complement to accentuate Black Hawk’s figure and direct the viewer’s eye around the piece, she said.

Next, Knott said the school will highlight the piece with spotlights and mount a plaque inscribed with the chief’s words.

“We’re educating students about history and art,” Knott said.

“It’s a win-win.”