Opponents Of Manhasset Indians React To No-Native Mascot State Ruling

MANHASSET, NY — A November state Department of Education ruling that public school districts can no longer use Native American mascot names and imagery reignited debates across Long Island that have been happening for years. The department told schools to remove Native American mascots by the end of the 2022-23 school year, or lose financial aid.

In the case of Manhasset Public Schools, opposition to the Manhasset Indian mascot name coalesced in 2020 and 2021, when major league sports teams like the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cleveland Indians announced changes. Online petitions both in favor of getting rid of Native American mascots and keeping them collected signatures and heated debate across Long Island.

Jo Trigg graduated from Manhasset High School in 2004. In 2020, she authored a Change.org petition titled "Manhasset High School Should Change the Racist Mascot" that just under 6,000 people have signed since.

She wrote: "Even as a young child in the early 1990s attending Munsey Park Elementary school, I knew that the Manhasset High School mascot, the Indians, was immoral. I graduated from Manhasset High School in 2004, and thought that as some time passed, the mascot would change. It never happened. Therefore, we all need to take initiative to ensure it is changed, once and for all."

Trigg told Patch that she believes the ruling in New York was slow in coming.

"The New York State DOE actually made a memorandum back in 2001 that NY schools who use Native American imagery should change it—2001! Many other states with significant Indigenous populations made these mascot changes back in the '90s. We have to ask ourselves what has taken so long?"

After the 2020 petition the Manhasset School District held board meetings, where, Trigg recalls, "Indigenous people joined to speak up regarding their opposition to the use of the mascot, along with numerous people who also supported the removal, which far outnumbered the people who wanted to keep the mascot."

The district didn't announce any changes or decisions on the mascot after the meetings.

Manhasset School District had no comment on the November state ruling, or information about when or how Manhasset would change the mascot name.

In the DOE announcement, Senior Deputy Commissioner James Baldwin said, "arguments that community members support the use of such imagery or that it is respectful to Native Americans are no longer tenable."

Iris Liu, a senior at Manhasset High School, penned a satire and submitted it as a letter to Newsday on Dec. 2. She wrote in her fictional news report:

"On Nov. 29, Dean Schlanger, principal of Manhasset Secondary School, announced the school’s new mascot would be 'White Guy.'"

"The new 'White Guy' mascot is receiving increasing support from the student population. At sports events, cheerleaders have already started chanting, 'Let’s go, White Guys! Let’s go!' instead of the old-fashioned 'Let’s go, Indians!'"

“'I can’t wait for our school newspaper to be renamed White Guy Ink, too,' a Manhasset junior said."

In 2021, 35 Manhasset High School student government leaders and varsity sports captions co-signed a letter in support of retaining the Manhasset Indian mascot.

The Manhasset Times quoted the letter as saying:

“Manhasset students represent this culture with the utmost respect. Not once at any school or community event have we witnessed the Indian name be tarnished or demeaned in any way, rather, we watch as students and community members proudly boast the name, chanting ‘We are the Indians’ for anyone in the nearby vicinity to hear.”

Trigg said after she created her petition, a counter-petition was started, garnering around 1,000 signatures.

"I think change is scary for a lot of folks. I used to be someone who supported the mascot, actually. I didn't see anything wrong with it until I started to think a bit more critically about it. Would we ever be the Manhasset Jews, the Mahasset LGBTQs, the Manhasset Blacks, the Manhasset Whites?"

She says she hopes the district can move quickly to enact changes.

"It's a good thing that society evolves and changes and is more inclusive nowadays— these are certainly wonderful changes I also see reflected in the Manhasset community present day."