Does Bellefonte’s ‘Red Raider’ honor tradition or show disrespect? Call for change sparks debate
A member of the Passamaquoddy and Mi’kmaq tribes, Rachel Moon is a Native American. But, she told Bellefonte Area school board members last week, she is not a mascot.
As a child, Moon absorbed her heritage “like a sponge,” she said during Tuesday’s school board meeting. Refusing to hide her culture, she performed a traditional dance at a school talent show and wrote reports on prominent Native American figures. She was proud, but over time, she said her pride turned into silence, as she grew tired of defending herself and her traditions to classmates who mocked her lineage.
Moon grew up in a district nicknamed “the warriors,” but she never spoke out against Native American mascots — until now, as her current home of Bellefonte renews a discussion on whether its “Red Raider” mascot should stay or go.
“I am still tired, but I will not remain silent,” said Moon, who is among Bellefonte’s 0.24% American Indian and Alaska Native population, according to world population data. “I am not a mascot. Native Americans are not mascots. They are first people, and they should be respected. There is no honorable way to represent them as sports mascots.”
A renewed Bellefonte ‘Red Raider’ debate
Native American names and symbols have a longstanding history of being used by sports teams at professional, college and high school levels. But institutions are increasingly facing pressure as many call for change.
The name has a long history in the district, and has not been without controversy in previous years. According to Bellefonte Area School District’s website, the Red Raiders were first introduced to the district in 1936, after a Centre Daily Times reporter referred to the team that way a year earlier. Chief Okocho, a costume depicting a Native American and worn by students at activities such as athletic events, was introduced as the district’s mascot in 1984, according to BASD. It was “reportedly removed due to its insensitive appearance and poor representation of Native Americans” in the early 1990s.
In 2015, the school made its Native American symbol a secondary logo, replacing it with a red block letter “B.”
This most recent debate started last month, when a small group of BASD alumni began to circulate an online petition in support of replacing the mascot with something not hostile or stereotypical toward Native Americans. Nearly 4,000 community members have signed.
A counter petition to keep the logo quickly sprung up and has been signed by almost 5,000 people who believe the Red Raiders teach Native American history and show respect to ingenious people. A “Keep the Bellefonte Logo” Facebook group also has thousands of members.
“We’re just trying to find a way to honor (Native Americans) and do it in a way that’s going to be respectful and we feel what we have right now is pretty good,” Bellefonte resident Harry Breon said.
Breon said the group has shifted away from talking about the school mascot, traditionally a student who dresses like a “Red Raider.” He added that they are fine with having no mascot, but the group wants the design and logo to remain similar.
Moon is among dozens who have demanded change to the school board, pushing members last week to vote 6-3 to open the discussion.
While most have agreed the current name was never meant to be offensive, the debate contributes to a much broader conversation happening across the United States.
“Change is coming, as frighteningly as it may seem,” Moon said. “The trend regarding these mascots is pretty clear. Even now on a national level, you are seeing team names for the Washington football team and Cleveland baseball team being changed.”
Native Americans, American Indian organizations call for change
By definition, a raider is “a person who attacks an enemy in the enemy’s territory; a marauder.” They are also synonymous with “attackers, assailants, robbers and thieves.” Though the origin of the word “redskin” has been long debated, some Native American activists consider that word and the color red slurs.
The National Congress of American Indians — the oldest and largest American Indian and Alaska Native advocacy organization — has a historic and clear position against “derogatory and harmful stereotypes of Native people,” which includes sports mascots.
One of the most high-profile changes came just last week with the Washington Redskins retiring its name and logo.
Last year, Maine banned the use of native imagery for mascots, with other states considering similar policies.
Can Native American mascots be accurate, respectful?
Those calling for reform argue that the mascot does not accurately represent Native Americans or the values of the Bellefonte community.
Bill Dieckman disagrees.
With a tattoo of the Washington Redskins logo on his chest, Dieckman has dubbed himself a “modern-day redskin.” As a member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma and former Marine, the redskins are more than a football team for Dieckman. They’re a piece of his culture.
“You had to prove yourself in battle multiple, multiple times before you had to dye your skin and standout,” Dieckman said. “That’s just the redskins alone. If you look at any native mascot, there’s a story behind it, and it’s probably very similar.”
Dieckman, of the Nebraska-based Native American Guardians Association, has joined the conversation surrounding the Bellefonte Red Raiders. NAGA aims to “preserve and honor Native American pride and dignity” through education — “not eradication,” he said.
Dieckman said he has traveled throughout the country speaking on behalf of Native Americans being used as mascots, using a campaign named “Save Our Native Souls.”
Changing mascots is not the way to honor Native Americans, he said. In fact, he thinks that’s the worst possible way to show respect to indigenous people.
“That’s an excuse to rid America of native history and native imagery,” he said. “If you look at it, we’re the only ethnic group that has to prove our bloodline, and we’re in our own country. Our heroes aren’t even celebrated with a national holiday, but there’s still a Columbus Day.”
As a kid, Dieckman said he looked to sports teams with Native American mascots because they represented his heritage.
“Nobody names a team after something that they despise,” he said.
Rather than “erase” the Bellefonte mascot and logo, Dieckman thinks the district should use the discussion as a way to strengthen its curriculum by teaching and promoting Native American history.
“Those who oppose will probably always oppose until they’ve been educated,” he said. “Education is the perfect weapon.”
What’s next for the Red Raider debate?
Community members and board members have acknowledged that BASD is faced with a number of pressing challenges amid the mascot debate — fall reopening, financial strain created by COVID-19, among others.
Still, the conversation hasn’t gone away. With more than a dozen residents speaking about the mascot online and in board meetings, the directors agreed last week to continue the conversation about the mascot in upcoming meetings and throughout the 2020-21 school year.
Wanting to learn more about the Red Raider, Native American history, the cost of change and hear what the community wants to do, the board said the mascot discussion can also be worked into the Bellefonte diversity and inclusion plan and be used in classrooms to teach history.
“If we work together, talk with the school board, we can work something out,” Breon said. “We can do it in a way that’s honorable, and we can teach and honor the tradition and why we do it.”
This story was originally published July 18, 2020 at 11:29 AM.
