Newly elected pro-Native American college board reclaims indigenous mascot, stands down cancel tradition

A Pennsylvania neighborhood reclaimed its native Indigenous historical past and a faculty’s in style tribesman mascot final week, only a month after 5 new college committee members received elections and ran on pro-Native American platforms. 

The Southern York County Faculty District (SYCSD) college board voted 7-2 on Thursday to permit Susquehannock Excessive Faculty to deliver again its conventional Warriors emblem. 

“This vote was the Lexington & Harmony second within the effort to defeat cancel tradition,” Native American activist and historian Andre Billeaudeuax informed Fox Information Digital, after lobbying on behalf of the normal picture that pays homage to the Indigenous Susquehannock folks. 

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All seven votes in favor of the emblem got here from members who have been elected since a earlier board voted to take away the emblem again in 2021. 

“The SYCSD college board stands as a job mannequin and blueprint for different communities combating for his or her Native names and imagery,” the North Dakota-based Native American Guardians Affiliation (NAGA) stated in a press release, after it offered its case final week on the board assembly.

From left, Joe Wilson, Invoice Corridor, Jennifer Henkel, Jeremy Nash and Nathan Henkel have been all elected to the Southern York County (Penn.) Faculty District college board in Nov. 2023 — working on pro-Native American platforms. They voted in January 2024 to reclaim an area highschool’s Native American emblem and mascot. (Courtesy Jennifer Henkel)

5 of the newcomers have been elected in November after the sudden removing of the favored picture in 2021 — and an effort to rewrite the area’s Native American historical past — spurred neighborhood anger and motion. 

“This motion was about erasing Native American tradition and I wasn’t about to face for it,” Jennifer Henkel, a mom of three kids and one of many new college board members, informed Fox Information Digital. 

“The SYCSD college board stands as a job mannequin and blueprint for different communities combating for his or her Native names and imagery.”

She and the opposite 4 new college board members, together with her husband, Nathan Henkel, had by no means earlier than run for elected workplace, she stated. 

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Their arrival, nonetheless, is outwardly not welcome by everybody locally.

“They got here into their new positions with bravado to push their private agendas, and never with humility to study their jobs,” wrote Deborah Kalina, a former member of the college board, in a current visitor editorial that appeared within the York Every day Document.

The 5 people on the left received election to the Southern York County (Penn.) Faculty District college board in Nov. 2023. On the correct, the Warriors mascot at Susquehannock Excessive Faculty. (Courtesy Jennifer Henkel)

“To place the mascot away is respect for the previous, for the current and for the longer term,” Katy Isennock, recognized as a faculty alumna, mom and Native American, additionally informed the identical native outlet after the vote final week.  

Moved by cancel-culture effort

Henkel stated she was moved to political motion by the detrimental affect on the neighborhood of the COVID-19 lockdowns and faculty closures — and by a cancel-culture effort to rewrite native historical past to stir public sentiment towards the Warriors picture. 

The outrage as a substitute fueled the neighborhood’s effort to save lots of its native historical past.

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“Present analysis findings show that there isn’t a proof that the Susquehannock Indians lived in or across the municipalities that comprise the Southern York County Faculty District,” the board’s variety committee wrote in a 2021 examine. 

But that variety committee report seems to battle with centuries of recognized native historical past. European explorers wrote in regards to the Susquehannock individuals who lived alongside the Susquehanna River as early as 1608, whereas historians consider they lived within the space centuries earlier. 

Native American activist and historian Andre Billeaudeaux is the creator of the e book “How the Redskins Bought Their Title.” He has lobbied on behalf of the normal picture that pays homage to the Indigenous Susquehannock folks.  (Courtesy Andre Billeaudeaux)

Susquehannock “communities have been situated alongside the Susquehanna (River), particularly in Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster and York counties,” stories the web site of the Susquehanna Nationwide Heritage Space, citing a number of historic sources.

The Native peoples, the web site additionally stated, “lived in massive fortified cities, the biggest of which can have had a inhabitants of practically 3,000 folks.”

“This motion was about erasing Native American tradition and I wasn’t about to face for it.”

The range report apparently relied closely on info supplied by the Nationwide Congress of American Indians (NCAI) to stoke opposition to the Susquehannock Warriors mascot. The highly effective Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group is supported by taxpayer {dollars} and by left-wing activist teams. 

It’s the identical group that led efforts to encourage the NFL’s Washington, D.C. franchise — now the Commanders — to alter its title from the Redskins, whereas additionally focusing on a whole bunch of different sports-team pictures across the nation.

Photograph circa Eighties: Combs made out of deer antlers by Susquehannock Indians.  (MPI/Getty Photographs)

The NCAI “receives grants from left-wing foundations just like the Ford Basis, the Robert Wooden Johnson Basis, and George Soros’ Open Society Basis, stories InfluenceWatch.org. 

The NCAI, a serious Native American rights group, has taken a powerful stance towards the usage of Native American imagery. 

The NCAI “has tracked the retirement of greater than 200 unsanctioned Native ‘themed’ mascots since 2019, and has supported laws banning the usage of these mascots in a number of states,” the group stated in a press release to Fox Information Digital in Sept. 2023.

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Fox Information Digital reached out to the group for remark concerning the Pennsylvania college district information.

A report the NCAI issued in 2010 included a prolonged historical past of the Redskins franchise, however didn’t point out the 2 influential Native Individuals who impressed the group’s title and imagery. 

Blackfoot chief John Two Weapons White Calf is proven at left — he served as inspiration for the Washington Redskins emblem (proper), which represented the NFL franchise on the sector from 1972 to 2020. The franchise’s unique emblem from its founding in 1932 was impressed by Lenni Lenape chief Tammany, dubbed “The Patron Saint of America” by the Founding Fathers and the technology that fought the American Revolution.  (Getty Photographs)

One was Lenni Lenape chief King Tammany, who was dubbed the “Patron Saint of America” for his function in motivating colonial troops within the American Revolution; and the opposite was Blackfoot chief John Two Weapons White Calf, whose face appeared on the facet of Redskins helmets for 48 years.

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“It took a whole lot of bravery for folks in York County to face up and struggle again towards the agenda, like David towards Goliath, and the distinction they made is unimaginable,” stated Billeaudeaux.

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