Native Americans have had about enough of woke mobs erasing their images, nicknames, and tributes from our nation’s schools, and they’re pushing back to save their culture from being canceled.
According to Lisa Davis, a pro-Native American activist in Cedar City, Utah, “We’re actually fighting an anti-American movement.”
“The people trying to erase Native American culture are the same people trying to remove Thomas Jefferson and bashing American heritage,” she told Fox News Digital.
In 2019, the Iron County School Board voted to ditch Cedar High School’s iconic Redmen name and logo, opting instead to be called the “Reds.”
“I look at it as surgically removing the problematic part,” Iron County School Board President Stephen Allen said at the time.
(Video: YouTube)
The move prompted Davis and other Cedar City residents to form VOICE (Voices of Iron County Education), a grassroots organization dedicated to reinstating the Redmen name.
Julia Casuse is a “full-blooded Navajo” who graduated from Cedar City High School. She now works as a silversmith at her family’s Navajo Crafting Co. shop.
“It was an honor to be called the Redmen,” she told Fox News Digital. “I’m a Redmen through and through.”
Davis noted the irony of the “Reds” nickname.
“We went from honoring centuries of American and Native American history to honoring communism,” she stated.
Eunice Davidson, a Dakota Sioux and president of the Native American Guardians Association (NAGA) in North Dakota, called the trend of removing Native American mascots “a terrible injustice to these communities.”
It’s not a move most communities want to make, the activists argue. Outside, well-funded entities are pressuring the local school boards into it.
“The decisions never have popular support,” Davidson said. “The taxpayer is being shunned and the school boards don’t care anymore. It’s Marxism and it’s taken over the school boards.”
According to VOICE, “79% of local residents voted in support of the Redmen in a recent Change.org survey,” Fox News Digital reports.
From Connecticut and New York to Texas to Oklahoma to Utah, Arizona, and Washington — “communities around the nation are waging similar battles,” according to the outlet, which details several ongoing fights.
“The powerful group National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), based in Washington, D.C. has led the effort to erase Native American images in local communities around the nation,” Fox News reports. “The organization is funded by benefactors such as George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, along with taxpayer dollars.”
In a statement last year to Fox News Digital, the NCAI boasted that it “has tracked the retirement of more than 200 unsanctioned Native ‘themed’ mascots since 2019, and has supported legislation banning the use of these mascots in multiple states.”
“The group is also largely responsible for the effort to force the NFL’s franchise in Washington, D.C., to drop its traditional Redskins name and the familiar Native American face that appeared on the team’s helmets,” according to Fox.
When claiming in a 2013 report that “Widely consumed images of Native American stereotypes in commercial and educational environments slander, defame and vilify Native peoples,” the NCAI forgot to mention the face of the Redskins for 48 years, Blackfoot Chief John Two Guns White Calf.
“He was one of the most influential Native Americans of the 20th century. He fought for Native American causes and counted President Calvin Coolidge among his sphere of influence,” Fox News Digital reports. “His proud facade appeared on Redskins helmets from 1972 until he was canceled in 2020. The NCAI scrubbed his name from its history of the franchise.”
Casuse doesn’t see the traditional Cedar High School mascot as “problematic.”
She said the Redmen logo made her feel at home when she attended her first football game after leaving a Navajo reservation in New Mexico in the 1960s.
“All of a sudden I heard a very strong native beat. The school song,” she said. “It stopped me in my tracks. It was wonderful hearing that sound and the beautiful Native music.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.