Colorado legislators are discussing a proposal that would prohibit Native American mascots from being used in public schools and universities. This is part of a national movement for social equity that gained traction last year after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis and the NFL team in Washington changing its name.

The legislation, which was approved by the state Senate Education Committee on Thursday, would impose a $25,000 monthly fine on colleges, schools, and universities that use American Indian-themed mascots after June 1, 2022. The committee amended the law to exclude schools that have or would establish arrangements with tribes to use those mascots. The changes will also exclude schools on tribal lands.

According to Democratic state Sen. Jessie Danielson, one of the bill’s supporters, almost two dozen Colorado schools still use Native American mascots such as “Warriors,” “Reds,” and “Savages.” Cheyenne Mountain High School in Colorado Springs and Loveland High School in northern Colorado have lost their “Indians” mascots in the last year.

In 2015, a committee of tribal members and state agencies suggested that Native American mascots be removed from campuses, but many still exist.

“They’ve been protested. They’ve been begged. They’ve even been urged by the state of Colorado to do the right thing, and instead of taking it on their own to do the right thing, they’ve continued using derogatory mascots,” Danielson said.

Tribal members argued before the Senate committee that the bill was necessary because of the nation’s history of erasing Native American identity by banning indigenous traditions and establishing boarding schools to assimilate children.

“My people have worked hard to overcome these policies aimed at exterminating our existence and any record of our history and culture,” Melvin J. Baker, chairperson of the Southern Ute Tribe, said.

Baker noted that, besides those policies, the “inaccurate and cruel portrayals,” of Native Americans as mascots have “strategic tools to marginalize Indigenous communities.”

Sylvester Roubideaux, a Rosebud Sioux Tribe member, spoke out against the measure. He testified that the “Indians” mascot at a high school in Yuma, Colorado, where his family lives, has enabled the appreciation of Native American culture in his community. Roubideaux said that removing the mascots would cause less Native American representation and a “vanishing people.”

According to the legislation, mascots produce “an unsafe learning environment,” for Indigenous students by “promoting bullying,” and teach other students that “it is acceptable to take part in culturally abusive and prejudicial behaviors.”

Talon Long, an 18-year-old from a Native American family, testified before the committee that his peers referred to him as “Chief Talon” and asked if he lived in a cave in the mountains.

“I’m not anyone’s mascot, and I’m not an animal, a savage or anyone’s good luck charm,” Brody SeeWalker, a seventh-grader from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and a Lakota descendant, testified. “I am a human and a proud Lakota who comes from a long line of ancestors that fought so very hard so that I could be standing here before you today.”

According to the National Congress of American Indians, a nonprofit organization founded in 1944 to preserve Native American and Alaska Native rights, the attempt to ban mascots with Native American images started after the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

The campaign received brief notice until 2005, when the National Collegiate Athletic Association asked colleges to stop using “hostile or abusive” mascots and symbols in college athletics. Later on, the discussion moved to the multibillion-dollar NFL industry.

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According to a website operated by the National Congress of American Indians, over 1,900 schools in the United States had American Indian-themed mascots as of last week. The database says that 68 schools in Utah, Ohio, Michigan, Idaho, New York, Massachusetts, and California abandoned American Indian-themed mascots in 2020.

Proposed name changes often face opposition because removing a mascot entails new logos, uniforms, field markings, and merchandise imagery.

Measures in Washington and Illinois will allow Native American mascots to be used if a local tribe accepts a proposal from the school, like Oregon has already accomplished. Exclusions are also included in Illinois’ bill for schools that organize annual schoolwide workshops on Native American culture and offer classes on “Native American contributions to society.”

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