Bucyrus School Board meets to discuss changing school mascot

BUCYRUS—Aside from dealing with the pandemic, the Bucyrus City School District is in the midst of the conversation of potentially changing their school mascot.

At October’s board meeting, two individuals touched on the topic, with one being a member of the National Council of American Indians or NCAI.

Joshua Liles, a longtime Crawford County citizen who formerly attended Bucyrus High School, addressed the board over his concerns on the topic of changing the mascot.

“What brought me here today is an article on the Telegraph-Forum about changing the Bucyrus School’s mascot due to someone complaining about it being insensitive,” Liles began. “I, for one, like many others, am really tired of this PG culture going on. I am actually, in fact, part Cherokee, and my wife is part Cherokee and Blackfoot. I know other members who are part Indian who, do not whatsoever, take offense to this stuff. I just wanted to raise my concerns with these issues with everybody always having to worry about the sensitive people taking offense at everything—I don’t think that there should be any reason, cause, concern, or debate as to whether or not your school should change its longtime mascot. I am tired of all of these younger generations getting too sensitive—we should raise our kids to know that there will be things that offend them.”

What began this whole process was members from the NCAI reaching out to the school district and offering educational materials during the mascot review process back in June.

The NCAI consists of hundreds of tribal governments across the country. The NCAI has collectively agreed upon and passed several consensus-based resolutions on the mascot issue.

Lycia Maddocks, a member of the Kwatsan Indian Nation and Vice President of External Affairs for the NCAI, attended the board’s zoom meeting to give insight as to why the mascot should be changed.

“One of our resolutions states that the use of Native American sports mascots, logos, or symbols perpetuate stereotypes of the American Indians that are actually very harmful. The warrior/savage myth reinforces the racist views that Indians are uncivilized, uneducated, and it’s been used to justify the policies of forced assimilation and the destruction of Indian culture,” Maddocks said. “Sports mascots are symbols of disrespect that degrade, mock, and harm native people, and in particular native youth. So, we believe that they have no place in American society.”

In today’s society, there are more than 574 federally recognized tribes with rich cultures, full-fledged governments, and diverse communities.

“We believe that true respect for Native people and other people of color requires our country to rid itself of these symbols of racism and intolerance that has far too long marginalized and dehumanized our population.

Board member John Kime asked Maddocks ways that as a school and a town, individuals can show respect and honor to Native American culture.

“As educators, it starts with the curriculum. Not only are you sharing the history of the traditional homelands, but you’re teaching about the 574 federally recognized tribes that are still here and some uniquenesses about the relationship that native people have to the federal government. Those are all really easy things to incorporate into social studies, history, and all of those types of areas,” Maddocks said.

“As you know, I can’t speak for all people. The gentleman who spoke earlier has Cherokee and Blackfoot blood in his family, and his views differ, but the consensus comes from community. A lot of native people get their ways, their morals, and their values from community, and we know that the Cherokee and Blackfoot nations are not in Ohio, but if they were among their people, I’m sure that they would learn a little bit more about how native people feel about stereotypes and about the way we are perceived these days, and that might help to create a little more understanding.” Maddocks said.

The next question on the matter came from board member Randy Blankenship. “One of the things I see most often is that our mascot is a way for us to try and honor the Native Americans and Indians. What would you say to those individuals that say that our mascot is a positive light for Native Americans?”

Maddocks stated that that is one of the most common justifications for the use of a Native American mascot, but that the true honor anyone can give to native people is to ask them if it truly does honor them because they may not have agreed to this in the first place. “If we are to look at the history of the Redmen and unpack it a little bit, and those types of things like that, it’s racist. It is looking at somebody and categorizing them because of what they look like and then coming up with some imagery that you think is representative of that, and that doesn’t create honor for native people. If you are honoring somebody, you take their version of it.”

At the November board meeting, superintendent Matt Chrispin and Tim Souder presented to the board all that they were able to gather on the history of the school’s longtime mascot, the Redman.

In their research into the district and the mascot, in a yearbook forward from The Bucyrian in 1927, they discovered that Bucyrus actually got its name from the Egyptian city, Busiris.

While school was held for the first time in Bucyrus in 1823, the Bucyrus City School District was established back in 1834, with the first graduating class being in 1870 with only six girls.

In 1908, which was “The Bucyrian’s” first edition, there was the first reference to the boys basketball team being the “Wearers of B” which was more or less their mascot for a while. The school colors of red and white were not established for another 16 years until 1924.

It wasn’t until 1925 that the term “Redmen” was used, which simply came from one of the school colors being red, and the school’s student-athletes wearing red. While the Indian mascot didn’t come around for years, in 1926 in the Bucyrian, language referencing Indian culture was used in phrases like, “B.H.S. “Redmen” scalp Delaware Eleven” and “Redmen bring home scalp of Bellevue Cagers” in 1927.

In the time period of 1929-1960, for five of those years, Native American imagery was used on different things such as warm-up jackets, bass drums, etc. In the time from 1961-1979, the use of Native American imagery ramped up with the rise in popularity of t-shirts. The imagery was also found on instruments, patches, and uniforms. The “Redmen” nickname became official in 1947.

The original mascot outfit was an Indian costume that was the best dressed Indian from the 1960 Colonel Crawford Days parade, which has since become the bratwurst festival. The individual chosen was selected from a contest where the winner had to write an essay named, “Why I Want to be the Redman Mascot Because.” The mascot outfit was to be worn at the first football games against Tiffin Calvert.

In 2002, under former superintendent Kevin Kimmel, the current Indian chief logo was officially designed to what it is today.

“It is not a topic to be taken lightly, and the decision needs to be made by us, not an outside interest group,” said Jeff Sheerer, a Bucyrus alumnus, who also did research into the topic and spoke at the meeting.

In reference to Lycia Maddocks from the NCAI, Sheerer said, “She made a very passionate case for what her organization represents and believes in, and I commend her for stating her case. Their goal is to educate but eliminate all Native American mascots in business, professional sports, and high schools.”

Sheerer pointed out that the Native American Guardians Association (NAGA) exists, and opposes Native American mascots, but supports the respectful use of Indian names and imagery in sports. The organization feels that the elimination of such mascots would kill their history — their motto is, “educate, not eradicate.”

Before a decision is made in the coming months, the school will hold a public forum for community members to come and voice their opinions on the matter.