West Seattle High to drop mascot but will keep Indians as nickname
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The school known since 1917 as the West Seattle High Indians will be represented as early as the new school year by a yet-to-be-determined mascot. There will be an addition to the school nickname, but it will not be replaced. The Indian will remain as a symbol of the school, but it is unclear how it will be used.
The decision comes after years of sporadic controversy over the school's nickname, which offends many Native Americans but invokes pride in many alumni.
The latest push to change the moniker comes from the school's student-run Native American Club, which has teamed with the National Indian Education Association and the West Seattle American Indian Alumni, among others, to bring attention to the issue.
Those who want to change the name oppose the school's use of an Indian image — a warrior chief in full headdress — that does not accurately portray the indigenous tribes of the Puget Sound area. Proud alumni say the name honors the courage and integrity of the area's Native people.
Principal Phil Brockman says the school is caught in the middle. A task force formed to address the issue came up with this compromise:
"We're moving on the premise that we don't have a mascot," Brockman said. "The Indian is a symbol of our school. We're adding a mascot, hopefully by the end of the (school) year."
The mascot will likely be voted on by students from several options that "complement the Native American culture," Brockman said. The new mascot will affect athletic uniforms, school cheers, gymnasium décor and student-identification cards, which now show an Indian riding a horse. Ideally, the change will coincide with the school's move to its renovated building from its temporary location at the former Boren Junior High.
Some say that's not enough.
"It's a false compromise," said Ryan Wilson of the National Indian Education Association, the nation's largest and oldest Indian-education group, which promotes equity for American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians in U.S. schools.
"It's really dodging the issue. ... They'll keep the name, yet they're going to have an animal to represent that name? We reject that."
Sophomore Mariana Harvey, vice president of the Native American Club, also is not appeased by the change.
"In my heart, I don't think that's helping anyone. If it offends us, then that should be enough. That should be all we have to say," said Harvey, 15. "I don't want to be a mascot. I don't want to be a nickname."
Why not get rid of the Indians name altogether? Brockman's answer: 23,000 alumni.
The Monogram Club, an athletes' alumni group, adopted a resolution last year demanding that the Indians name live on. It's a sentiment that Robert Zoffel, president of the West Seattle High School Alumni Association, can understand.
"If you deem the symbol of your school as something to be proud of and you have people wanting to change that symbol, why wouldn't you oppose that?" said Zoffel, a 1982 graduate.
Still, the alumni association has not taken a formal stance.
"We weren't fully aware of the issue until recently," he said. "But if there are groups that find (the symbol) offensive, we are willing to address it."
Others have said that West Seattle's former principal, the late Jim McConnell, had announced the Indians name would be phased out by fall. Harvey's older sister, Kira, a 2000 graduate of West Seattle High, recalls buzz about the name change when she was a senior.
"When I graduated, Principal McConnell said when we come back to the (renovated) building we will have a new mascot," Kira Harvey said, who chose not to wear the school's graduation tassel because it bears an Indian caricature. "People were talking about it. It was everyone's understanding that it was changing."
For now, the only change at the school — other than a $53 million renovation project — will be the addition to the nickname, rather than its replacement.
"I don't think it's going to be the end of it. We're still going to have some work to do," Brockman said. "But it's a start. I don't know where the 'Indians' will end up."