Tensions Rise At Tvlse Meeting Over Native Mascot Representation
Written By: Frances Danger, Brittany Harlow, Russell Sun Eagle
(TVLSE, Okla.) At Monday night's Tulsa Public Schools meeting, community members gathered to discuss the future of the Webster Warriors and Central Braves mascots.
During the meeting, multiple heated exchanges took place as Native students and community members shared negative experiences relating to mascot imagery. Other alumni and supporters continued to voice dissatisfaction that the mascot imagery would be changing.
As a Cherokee student and president of the Tulsa Native Youth Board talked about the mental harm caused by depictions of Native mascots, multiple audience members cut in with “Why?” and pressed her to give “her opinion, not studies,” escalating into a tense debate.
TPS Superintendent Dr. Ebony Johnson was forced to intervene several times, asking adults to be respectful and to allow students to speak without being shouted down.
The Tulsa Public Schools Board of Education voted 6–1 to cease its use of Native American imagery to depict Webster and Central High Schools’ mascots on September 8. Despite this decision, several attendees continued to insist the images should stay. Others called for mascots that accurately reflect the tribes whose lands the schools sit on.
In terms of design, it would be challenging for a single sports mascot to accurately reflect the Native Nations whose lands the district currently sits on. Tvlse sits at the tripoint of the Mvskoke, Cherokee, and Osage Nations. These Native Nations are distinct political entities with their own unique governments, beliefs, and traditions. To try to hodge podge them into a single "honorable" depiction runs the risk of erasing each tribal identity into a pan Indian stereotype which is already at the root of the mascot debate.
In terms of accuracy, a good starting point would be the stance of the tribal governments. In July 2001 The Intertribal Council of the Five...Tribes, which includes the Mvskoke and Cherokee Nations, passed a resolution condemning the use of Native mascots. In 2024 Osage Principal Chief Standing Bear spoke out against the Kansas City Chiefs and their use of the harmful and stereotypical tomahawk chop.
Local tribally elected officials have spoken and as representatives of the citizenry they carry forth a message that these stereotypical representations are not only not honorable they cause harm to Natives and non-Natives alike.
This stance is also backed by scientific studies. According to a peer reviewed study from February 2020 57% who strongly identify with being Native and 67% of those who frequently engage in their culture/s were found to be deeply insulted by caricatures of Native cultures.
Natives fight every day to be represented accurately in modern American society. For many non-Native youth, sports mascots are their only experience with "Native" cultures, depictions that consign Natives to the dustbin of history by erasing vibrant and still living tribal identities.
The next community meeting on the mascots is scheduled for October 28.
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