Syracuse.com
by James McClendon jmcclendon@syracuse.com
Onondaga Nation Clan Mother Wendy Gonyea remembers walking into the Westhill High School gym and coming face to face with an enormous blue image of a Native American on the wall. 
It was more than 30 years ago and the giant logo is long gone, but the expression of fear Gonyea saw on her 5-year-old daughter’s face has stuck with her.
“She was looking at it and I could tell she was kind of afraid of it,” Gonyea said. “It was a big thing on the whole wall. My thought was, if my little girl is afraid of that and she’s got a little angst about it, what do all the kids in the school think about it? What are they forming in their little minds about Indigenous people? What are we teaching our kids with these mascots?”
Westhill, along with Liverpool, rebranded its logos and mascots to more of a Spartan or Roman warrior in the early 2000s, after then-state Commissioner of Education Richard P. Mills issued a 2001 memorandum “concluding that the use of Native American symbols or depictions as mascots can become a barrier to building a safe and nurturing school community and improving academic achievement for all students.”
Longtime Onondaga Nation lawyer Joe Heath said he approves of the state’s decision to ban those nicknames, logos and mascots tied to Native American culture.
“I do know that generally the people that I speak to there, the chiefs and regular citizens, think this is a good small step,” he said. “but there’s a lot more that needs to be done.”
Many of the districts that will be forced to change their nicknames, logos and mascots have argued that they are meant to honor Indigenous people, and some have said they have had nothing to do with Native American culture for more than 20 years.
“I understand the attempt was made, like at Westhill,” Gonyea said. “I was there a few years later and I noticed the change. I’m glad it’s gone.”
More changes are on the way for Westhill, Liverpool and about 20 other Central New York school districts. They will be forced to drop nicknames like Warriors, Raiders, Indians — and much worse — after the state Department of Education unanimously approved the ban of nicknames with any ties to Native American culture during a Board of Regents meeting on April 18 in Albany.
The ban became effective as a permanent rule on Wednesday, and schools will need to make the change by the end of the academic school year or risk being in violation of the Dignity Act. Districts risk the removal of school officers and the withholding of state aid if the changes are not made.
“Those are very problematic terms and very historically inaccurate,” Heath said. “Colonial history always portrays Indigenous people as violent, warlike and warriors, and that is certainly not the case with the Onondaga Nation. They govern themselves under the great law of peace, so the kind of knee-jerk association of Indigenous people with warriors is offensive and historically inaccurate.”
The state’s order did include an exemption for federally- or state-recognized tribes to use the banned names, mascots and logos for sports teams comprised of their tribal members. Public schools will also be allowed to continue the use of the names, mascots and logos if an agreement exists in writing between the tribal nation and the school prior to the effective date of the ban, according to the state.
Heath said he was not aware of any such agreement between Onondaga Nation and any school district but believes the leadership would be willing to sit down and have a conversation.
“I wouldn’t think that they would agree (to allow schools to continue using the nicknames), but I don’t think I could sit here now (and say that) without sitting down with the council and asking that question directly,” he said. “One of the things that we hope is that those school districts could listen to Indigenous people and listen to them talk about the psychological harm that the words warrior or raider have to children.”
Over the years, Gonyea, who previously worked in the communications office, and a team of representatives have visited and engaged in conversation with schools across Central New York.
“Students were coming to us that went (to these schools) who were Native,” Gonyea said. “Were a real small minority in the schools, and they always felt like they were being ridiculed. They were very sad over this whole issue, and especially if it was game time, the warlike and the crazy antics would happen and these kids would feel just so small and not a part of their schools.”
Gonyea said she feels the lack of sensitivity for her people’s culture can mostly be attributed to the absence of representation in the educational system across the state.
“Schools, maybe they’re getting better now, but they didn’t teach about us,” she said. “And so the change is slow.”
She hopes the relationships that have been built between the Onondaga Nation and the surrounding communities will help people understand why this change is so important.
“I think it’s a long time overdue,” Gonyea said. “We know the stereotypes and we know the cartoon figures and we know all that. We’ve seen it, but we need to move on and recognize people as people. As human beings.”
Related:
Mascots: Honor or Insult
Haudenosaunee statement on mascots