This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
12/09/2019 11:00 PMIn the last 30 years or so, the question of changing the mascot in Guilford has been brought up on at least three occasions, and in recent months the issue has again been raised by school and community members, pitting questions of history and tradition against potential harm caused by the name. As the town prepares once again to discuss a change, the Courier researched the history of the Indians moniker in Guilford and spoke with historians and Native American leaders for a clearer view of the controversial issue.
Guilford High School (GHS) has used the “Indians” moniker since around 1949, along with an emblem that depicts the face of what is supposed to be generic Native American man with a feather headdress. In recent years, the school has taken to describing “Indians” as a nickname rather than a mascot, as the school discontinued the practice of having a student dress up on the sidelines of sporting events or during pep rallies.
A new emblem for the school introduced in 1990 sought to portray two specific Mohegan and Quinnipiac leaders with roots in Guilford, but was slowly phased out of common use, according to Guilford Superintendent of Schools Dr. Paul Freeman, though it is still found in some places on school property or materials. The current logo, used on athletic uniforms, is a large capital letter “G” with three feathers sticking out of it.
The impetus for all these changes is clear: Using images, depictions, costumes, chants, or names associated with indigenous tribes has historical roots in the systematic erasure of native peoples by European colonists, and many people, indigenous and non-indigenous, find it offensive.
Freeman told the Courier that he is in the process of involving local groups and individuals, including faith groups, students, and local chapters of the Anti-Defamation League and the Guilford Human Rights Commission in the mascot conversation. He said that the current discussion is “qualitatively different” from debates in years’ past.
Freeman added that it was “fair for the community to expect” public conversations about the topic “as we move into the new year.”
Replacing the GHS mascot or nickname has always elicited strong emotions in Guilford. On the one hand, many residents point out that indigenous groups and leaders across the country have called for an end to the use of these mascots or nicknames as inherently offensive. Others have been adamant in their defense of the long use of the name and the pride it recalls for them, with some stating their belief that it has been or can be used to honor those native people who contributed to what is now the town of Guilford.
So far, the voice missing from this conversation as the town seeks a way to honor rather than hurt has been that of indigenous people able to speak personally about the potential problems of the name or mascot.
Framing the Conversation
Meghanlata Gupta is a student at Yale University and a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. She currently serves as the president of the Association of Native Americans at Yale, and is the founder and editor-in-chief of Indigenizing the News, an online resource dedicated to indigenous voices and issues.
Speaking to the Courier, Gupta said that involving native people in the conversation around the mascot isn’t just an important component of the debate—it is, in fact, the whole point.
“A lot of people don’t really engage with Native American peoples that exist today,” said Gupta, “so kind of bringing them into the conversation and asking what makes them comfortable can sometimes be the best way to start opening up that conversation.”
It is that disconnect, with non-indigenous communities failing to reach out to, understand, or learn about their indigenous neighbors, that contributes to the misunderstanding and harm within these debates, Gupta said. The solution, or the conversation can’t be limited to just one issue, but needs to involve a broader understanding by the Guilford community of indigenous cultures, ideas, and lives, she said.
Though she stated unequivocally that “Indian” mascots are “just something that is really offensive,” she said that Guilford could go further when having these conversations, and start to look at how both the school and the town approaches anything the affects indigenous peoples. Focusing on education, and learning what underlies the feelings and experiences of indigenous people today is the best path toward a real understanding beyond anger, accusation, and distrust, according to Gupta.
“I think one of the larger issues that kind of affects all of us, is that there’s not a lot of education about contemporary Native American peoples,” Gupta said. “There’s a lot growing up—you hear about certain tropes like Thanksgiving, and the pilgrims, and people often learn about the Trail of Tears...but the problem is there’s a very thriving, large community of indigenous people in the United States today, and so one of the most important parts when people have this conversation is to try to involve Native American people and voices and opinions.”
Asked about Guilford’s school curriculum including issues of importance to indigenous peoples, Freeman said that they were covered in social studies and history classes.
Gabriela Garcia-Perez, a senior at GHS, said she has not learned in any class at the school about modern indigenous issues. She said the school has made efforts to honor occasions like Native American Heritage Month with quotes placed around the building, but that in classrooms, students and teachers “don’t really talk about modern stuff.”
Garcia-Perez said when she attended elementary school in East Haven, her school sponsored trips to the Mohegan Reservation, where she and other students interacted and learned about the tribe’s culture and history. She said she has not heard of any of those programs in Guilford, but said that it was “a really great idea that I’ll be bringing up” to school officials.
As far as the mascot, Garcia-Perez said she had encountered a lot of anger among her classmates when discussing the issue of the mascot. She said she didn’t personally “associate with either group, because obviously you’re going to get hate either way,” and said that the issue had created “a divide in our community.”
“I’m a firm believer of being open minded, and [respecting] others’ ideas,” she said.
Local Tribes and Nicknames
The school district has not reached out to any local tribe or indigenous group about the mascot, either in recent months or when the issue was raised in 2011 and 2017, according to Freeman. A Mohegan Tribe spokesperson said they expected to hear from Guilford officials soon, which Freeman confirmed was something the district planned to do.
In a statement provided to the Courier, Mohegan Chief Lynn Malerba said that “[I]t is the position of the Mohegan Tribe that the use of American Indian mascots and American Indian named teams be discontinued.”
That said, the tribe has supported the retention of the “Indians” name in some cases.
According to that statement, Montville High School, which borders the Mohegan Tribe and has used the “Indians” moniker since 1965 with the tribe’s permission and input, does so as “a way to recognize the history of the tribe and the town that now occupies former Mohegan lands.”
“Montville High School has worked with its student body and its educators to protect against the name of the school and the mascot being used in a derogatory fashion,” the statement reads. “The term ‘Indians’ in and of itself is not derogatory or inflammatory. In this instance it is simply recognition of the first inhabitants of this land. There has been open dialogue between the Mohegan Tribe and school administrators intermittently regarding this issue.”
When asked why the school did not involve indigenous groups in previous conversations about the mascot, Freeman said previous debates “didn’t seem to have the level of local interest that I am sensing...at this time.”
“Not that we consciously chose not to reach out in the past, it’s that the conversation didn’t seem to have the legs in the past that I feel it may have this time,” Freeman said.
Freeman said that involving indigenous groups would be a priority for the school going forward, including inviting Native American leaders or tribal representatives to planned in-person public, community conversations in Guilford.
Though he said nothing had been finalized, the goal is “to be together in a space and to actually have a conversation” instead of putting out surveys or allowing the discussion to take place on social media.
History of ‘Indians’ in Guilford
The first use of Native American names and imageries by GHS came in 1944, when the school named its first official yearbook “Menunkatuck.”
“It is an appropriate and fitting title, for it is a familiar name to many who are acquainted with our town’s early history,” the dedication of that yearbook reads. It goes on to identify Menunkatuck as both the geographic area that is now Guilford, as well as the name of the tribe, and lists out what the colonists traded for the land—shoes, coats, hatchets, glasses, spoons, and hats, among a handful of other things.
That yearbook and subsequent yearbooks were branded with the original emblem of the school: a man with a full feathered headdress that Town Historian Joel Helander said resembles a “Western Indian” and does not accurately depict any indigenous person or dress from this area. At least one yearbook included dozens of cartoonish caricatures of Native Americans.
The first reference to GHS’s athletic teams as “Indians” came in 1949, and Helander, in a letter sent to the Board of Education this past October, cited a Guilford resident who graduated in 1949 as recalling the name being changed around that time to much positive feedback. GHS’s teams before 1944 time had been called the Rams, with a logo designed to look like a ram’s head.
Helander’s letter was meant to specifically to lay out the history of the “Indian” name and mascot. He said the “Western Indian” emblem was used until the school, specifically former principal Carl Balestracci, Jr., began tinkering with logo and branding for GHS starting around 1985, with the intent of making an emblem more relevant to local history and honoring nearby tribes.
According to a Shoreline Times article written at the time, the school officially introduced this new image in 1990, depicting Mohegan leader Uncas and Quinnipiac leader Shaumpishuh, drawn by Balestracci.
Freeman said that while images or depictions of native people have been phased out of use at GHS, this 1990 emblem can still be found around the school on a podium or as a seal or letterhead. He said that emblem was never used for athletic branding on uniforms or on the GHS athletic fields.
Helander told the Courier he felt that past debates about the mascot had been brought forward by a “vocal minority” and was mostly “a worn-out subject.”
“The odd thing is, the people who are appealing or bringing it to our attention are not the people complaining,” Helander said. “They’re representing other people who are offended, so the offended people, evidently, are not coming forward...I think that’s the difficulty in researching this right now.”
Helander declined to place himself on one side or the other of the issue, but emphasized the whole community should be a part of any conversations regarding the mascot. He said that “many feel that’s how the symbol is portrayed is what’s important,” and drew a distinction between Guilford’s use of “Indians” and other, nicknames and mascots with more offensive histories, connotations, and practices.
“Ultimately whoever is researching this needs to [find out] who are these people who are actually offended, and are they offended, and to what degree,” Helander told the Courier. “There have been suggestions, I think...that different persons in different tribes, at least in Connecticut, have different sensitivities...so the question is, is this a comprehensive sensitivity across the board?..It all comes down to sensitivities.”
Helander said that he understood some Guilford residents saw the name as a reference to the specific Native American peoples who lived, and for some period of time co-existed with settlers, which they saw in a positive light.
Another Shoreline Times article published in October 1993 said controversy over the new emblem, then only three years old, had inspired the GHS athletic department to send out a survey, with the results dictating whether the school would “keep or change the mascot.” Freeman said he was not aware whether or not the result of this survey was still preserved or documented anywhere in the district.
The issue arose again in 2011, and then most recently in 2017, when GHS student Josh Stern used the platform of his valedictory speech to call for a change of the mascot.
GHS’s move away from the name has been somewhat of a “slow progression,” Freeman said, with no singular moment or vote deciding explicitly to phase out Native American imagery from the school. He said that he was not aware of anyone dressing up as a mascot at GHS during his time at the school.
Pictures from yearbooks as recent as 1993 show students in face paint dressed in garb that includes headdresses, though it was not clear whether or not they were doing so in the capacity of a mascot.
Gupta said that focusing too much on the history has the danger of “shift[ing] away from the main point of the actual issue.”
“It doesn’t mean entire histories are erased when we change something like” a team name, she said. “It means that we’re working toward being more respectful and starting relationships.”
Gupta pointed out that there are 573 federally recognized tribal nations, all with their own local issues, needs, histories, cultures, values, and resources. Both the local Mohegan and Pequot tribes have community outreach centers or museums, Gupta said, where anyone can learn both about these tribes in both a historical and modern sense.
“We’re working toward being more respectful and starting relationships, and developing better relationships between native communities and non-native communities in the area,” Gupta said.