Mr. David Bulley, in the My Turn section, suggests that our Indian name and logo we use at Turners Falls High School “harms Native Americans” and that “Millions of natives as well as the American Psychological Association say there is no honor here.”
While these and other claims he makes are bold — they’re dangerously misleading.
Mr. Bulley had his turn in the paper. Now it is “My Turn” to voice the supporters’ side.
But, may I suggest that we embark on this debate in true Indian fashion by closely following the deliberative “council fire” standards as outlined in the “Great Law of Peace”: “Neither anger nor fury shall find lodgement in their minds and all their words and actions shall be marked by calm deliberation.”
So, let’s deliberate.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are only 2.6 million true Native Americans. Yet “millions” are suddenly against Turners Falls High School? Further, let’s consider that 12 years of research on the Redskins (a much more contentious name) found that only nine of 100 Native Americans sampled took issue with the name in both 2004 Annenberg School poll (from the Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania) and the 2016 Washington Post poll.
The results were exactly the same in both surveys, despite years of attempts by well-paid activist groups to attempt to toxify the name. Despite their best efforts, the Native Americans surveyed demonstrated their resolve to share their red painted Native warrior history.
And, from those nine who took issue with the name, many were simply concerned with how the Redskins images were being presented, not that they shouldn’t have been used at all.
Thus, with the Redskins generating such a small negative respondent pool, how can Mr. Bulley claim that “millions of natives” would find dishonor in our time-honored honorific?
So, does the American Psychological Association claim really make the case against our Indian name and logo at Turners Falls High School? It’s important to know that the APA’s assumption for its key research suggested that: “Most people know very little about American Indians beyond the mascot images portrayed in newspapers and on television.”
Right off the bat we know this is not the case in our community — it’s quite the opposite as many have spoken in great lengths about the Indian history that we are aware of in our town.
Further, the APA statement conveniently left out other key facts. It failed to note that its sample only included a handful of Natives from within one state, which could not possibly — per social science standards — be representative of the nearly 600 federally recognized tribes.
The APA also did not “control” for the fact that its likely research subjects came from Native American schools featuring their own Indian images and names such as the Tuba City Warriors, The Red Mesa Redskins and the Shiprock Chieftans. In this case, these students’ views on Chief Wahoo, for instance, could certainly elicit a feeling of Chief Wahoo being an “out-group mascot.”
This would not be because it’s negative stereotype, but because they already had identified their own schools’ “mascot” with the positive “in-group” association, while also realizing that Chief Wahoo is not a regional Arizona Native — but instead one from Ohio or the East Coast.
Notably, not one of these Arizona native schools has seen the need to change its name since the research was published more than 10 years ago.
Finally, the APA statement did not provide its findings that demonstrated that some “ … mascot presentations actually elicited positive feedback” and that “… these results suggest that American Indian mascot representations are not always regarded as negative.”
The research went on to suggest that an acceptable way to present Native images was to promote more, not less, Native images and names which would “ … institutionalize a broader array of social representations of American Indians.”
This could be done simply by adding key elements to our school’s history or social science curriculum or by establishing a “sister school” relationship with one of the aforementioned native schools — a true win/win for everyone involved.
Mr. Bulley references the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) but fails to note that they are not really a Congress as we know it but an activist organization relying on paid memberships that does not represent all Native American nations.
Finally, the National Congress of American Indians, just like Turners Falls, maintains a bold and proud image of a headdress-wearing Indian as it representative.
I say enough of this “harmful” talk.
Let’s just follow their lead!
Lew Collins is a Turners Falls resident. He graduated from Turners Falls High School in 1980.