Massapequa Lawsuit To Keep Indigenous Mascot Dismissed

MASSAPEQUA, NY. — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit from a Native American rights group that sued New York State over its ban on Native American mascots after entering an agreement with the Massapequa School District.

The Native American Guardian's Association, a North Dakota-based nonprofit group, had its lawsuit dismissed in a November decision after the judge found the group as having no legal standing to sue. The North Dakota group and David Finkenbinder had sued the New York Board of Regents after partnering with the district on May 15, arguing that the ban on indigenous imagery and mascots violates their constitutional rights. Finkenbinder is listed as a board member on NAGA tax documents from 2023 and 2022.

On its website, NAGA describes itself as “a collective of American Indian enrolled members and tribal descendents who support the beautiful artistry of native identifiers in sports and the mainstream. We stand united to preserve the rich legacy of our ancestors and ensure that American Indian names, symbols, and traditions are honored — not erased.”

According to court documents, the group sued the state two weeks after signing its contract with the district. In that agreement, court documents showed, NAGA and its board of directors fully permitted, consented to, supported and authorized the continued use of the Chiefs mascot as long as the district continued educational programming about Native American history.

In the ruling, judge Sanket J. Bulsara found that the group has no standing to sue New York State because it has no legal claim to or trademark on Massapequa’s mascot.

“The Agreement [between NAGA and the district] and NAGA’s Complaint do not assert that NAGA has any actual rights to the Chiefs mascot,” the decision reads. “They do not, for example, allege that NAGA created the mascot, owns or possesses any rights to it, or even that NAGA has the ability or right to license it. Indeed, NAGA’s Complaint suggests that ‘Chiefs’ has been a mascot throughout Massapequa for decades — used by the Chamber of Commerce and the Fire Department, among others — suggesting it long ago passed into the public domain, with no one claiming rights to it.”

Instead, Bulsara referred to the partnership with NAGA as “a clever attempt to cure Massapequa’s standing problems and its inability to sue the State of New York.”

“Invalidation of a contract is often an automatic entry into federal court, since the loss of the benefits from an agreement is an injury that is concrete and potentially immediate,” Bulsara wrote. “But here, the document that the parties call a contract in this case is anything but. It does nothing. NAGA contracted to allow Massapequa to use the Chiefs mascot — but NAGA does not own the mascot or have any rights to it. And Massapequa has never needed NAGA’s permission to use the Chiefs mascot.”

While Bulsara dismissed NAGA’s claims against the state ban on indigenous mascots, he did call the ban’s legal standing into question in his introduction, saying it could contain, “serious constitutional defects.”

“It appears to enact a legal classification based on race or ancestry, which subjects it to the most demanding form of judicial scrutiny,” Bulsara said in his decision. “The law may also abridge the First Amendment free speech rights of Massapequa School Board members and District employees. These difficult questions, however, are not the subject of this opinion.”

Bulsara dismissed suits from the school district and NAGA, but allowed Massapequa Board of Education Vice President Jeanine Caramore to proceed with suits she had filed in an individual capacity. Caramore, the decision reads, had filed suit on the basis that she plans to seek reelection to the school board and plans to wear Chiefs-branded apparel in her campaign for reelection. The law on Indigenous mascots, Caramore argued in court, infringes on her first amendment rights.

Patch attempted to reach the attorney for the school district at multiple offices Friday but received no response. Additionally, Patch attempted to reach NAGA by email and by phone Friday with no response. The Massapequa School District declined to comment for this piece, while the State Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

NAGA has until Dec. 29, 2025 to file an amended lawsuit. The full court decision can be viewed here.