Enumclaw Junior High To Drop Chieftain Mascot

ENUMCLAW - Chieftains no more.

Ending a tradition dating to the 1950s, Enumclaw Junior High School has been ordered to stop using a mascot that some Native Americans view as racist.

Enumclaw may be the first school district in Washington to replace a school mascot since the state Board of Education asked all districts last fall to review the appropriateness of their school names, nicknames and mascots.

In scrapping the Chieftains moniker, the Enumclaw School Board overrode a recommendation by the school's principal and a survey saying a majority of students and community members wished to keep the mascot.

The mascot is portrayed as a Plains Indian wearing a full headdress.

The School Board voted unanimously May 16 to replace the mascot after hearing a plea from three Native Americans.

"We shouldn't any longer be subjected to this kind of mockery," said one of the three, Muckleshoot Indian Sharon Calvert. "Any use of a mascot is a stereotype and offensive to our culture."

Calvert was an Enumclaw Junior High student in the late 1950s when the school replaced the old Hornets mascot with the Chieftains to avoid confusion with Enumclaw High, which also used the Hornet motif.

A new mascot has not been picked.

Students had mixed reactions.

Miriam Smith, secretary of the student government, said she was unaware of any students who were unhappy with the old mascot.

"I feel bad that people feel offended by it," she said.

Eighth-grader Maggin Kirkland, a Muckleshoot, said she didn't think much about the mascot until the Native American Heritage Club began to discuss it last fall. Then she became offended by the Indian-style dances some students performed after touchdowns at football games.

The dances have been discouraged by school staff members.

Brandi Drake, president of the Native-American club, had no objection to the mascot. She said it is "not stereotypical but a proud, honorable type mascot. . . . I feel it is honorable for Native Americans to be represented in a positive way."

Bob Eaglestaff, a leader in the movement to scrap Indian mascots, said he did not know of any schools besides Enumclaw Junior High that have taken that step since the state board's resolution. Brier Terrace Junior High dropped the Braves as its mascot in 1991.

But attempts to eliminate Indian mascots elsewhere have led to sharp, even ugly, incidents. Eaglestaff said his wife, a counselor at Meadowdale High School in Lynnwood, received a death threat. Enumclaw Junior High Principal Lea Anna Portmann said the process has been a positive one in her school. "I think our kids understand what the Native Americans were trying to tell us and . . . the Native American students could see it from the other perspective."