Pictured is Strider Field in Jamestown. Use of Native American names, references and imagery in school and sports teams is leading to discussions throughout the U.S. P-J photo by Cameron Hurst

This is the first of a two-part series analyzing Jamestown High School’s ‘Red Raider’ mascots amid a changing social landscape. Part Two will run in Monday’s edition of The Post-Journal.

Joe Stahlman is a Native American man.

For the majority of his five decades on Earth, he has worked inside and outside of academia to advance the causes and people of his culture.

And, he is tired — tired of seeing indigenous people across the country graduate at a lower rate than the general U.S. population, tired of seeing transportation and casino revenue agreements broken and tired of underfunded access to health care nationally for Native people.

And yes, he’s tired of having to address the stereotypical portrayals of his people seen in mascots and logos by high school, collegiate and professional sports programs and franchises.

“I am a human being and I have family and I have a culture just like anyone else, but yet, I have to put up with all this stuff,” said Stahlman, who holds a Ph.D. in sociocultural anthropology from the University of Indiana-Bloomington.

“I don’t know — why do people want to see us as invisible? We’re not invisible,” he added.

“The type of images, too: we’re cartoonish, we’re stereotyped and we’re always a ‘warrior’ of some sort,” he said. “In our given day with everything that we have to worry about, the last thing I want to worry about is a sports team.”

Stahlman serves as the director of the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum in Salamanca. He is one of three delegates appointed by the president of the neighboring Seneca Nation of Indians, Rickey L. Armstrong Sr., to help local school districts address Native American names, references and imagery in school and sports teams. Armstrong also appointed his chief of staff, Kerry John, as well as Jason Corwin, the executive director of the Seneca Media and Communications Center, to engage with communities in these conversations.

“It’s a long-overdue conversation and it’s not surprising that it’s taken time and that there has been resistance to the idea of change,” Corwin said. “It’s only in the last month to two months that some of the major national sports teams are dealing with this reckoning and conversation as well. It’s a sign of the times that we’re in and places all over are taking a hard look at these ultimately.”

That sign came most recently in the wake of the May 25 death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin that sparked a resurgence of social awareness. Washington’s National Football League franchise retired its longtime branding — long considered to be a racial slur toward indigenous peoples — in July after several sponsors threatened to pull out of their sponsorship agreements.

Across the nation, other professional sports franchises, like the Cleveland Indians and Atlanta Braves, have faced similar questions, as have high schools around the country and state that utilize similar nicknames and associated imagery.

Locally, a June petition started by members of the Jamestown Justice Coalition, which started in the wake of Floyd’s death, to change Jamestown High School’s longtime nickname, the ‘Red Raider,’ and the Native American imagery associated with it led to a statement of support from Armstrong, who said in a June 18 statement sent to The Post-Journal, who said, “The time for change has long since arrived, and the call should be heeded.”

Though a counter-petition opposed to the movement and in support of the current name and imagery generated over 1,000 signatures, Jamestown Public Schools announced in July that a committee previously formed to assess the ‘Red Raider’ would be reactivated to examine it once again.

“The voicing of these concerns creates an opportunity for JPS to hear, and work to understand, all points of view on the issues raised,” Dr. Kevin Whitaker, superintendent, said in a release. “We hope by talking about concerns and viewpoints in a committee format, we will find a way to bridge understanding and create an outcome that will make everyone feel heard in the process.”

But Natives like Corwin and Stahlman still are hesitant: they’re encouraged by the conversation, but nervous that it may be wiped away from the consciousness of the nation, state and school district quickly as each grapple with how to properly address the COVID-19 pandemic.

“My fear is, because everyone is getting ready to start the new school year, that I don’t want to see these schools put this on the back burner and forget about it,” Stahlman said, “Because we don’t get to forget about it.”

‘AS SOON AS PRACTICAL’

In 1998, the New York State Department of Education initiated an inquiry into the use of Native American mascots by schools under the direction of then-Commissioner Richard P. Mills, in response to an appeal filed by Robert Eurich, a taxpayer from Orange County, N.Y. Eurich sought to have the ‘Red Raiders’ mascot eliminated from Port Jervis High School after his petition to do so was rejected by the local school board.

The inquiry led to a three-year study of the issue. Its result: an April 5, 2001 memo to school board presidents and superintendents in which Mills concluded that “the use of Native American symbols or depictions as mascots can become a barrier to building a safe and nurturing school community and improving academic achievement for all students.” He also asked school chiefs to “lead their communities to a new understanding of this matter” by ending such use “as soon as practical.”

Among those aiding Mills and his staff in the construction of that memo was a then-associate professor of sport sciences at Ithaca College, Ellen J. Staurowsky.

In the years prior and in the two decades since providing input to Mills, Staurowsky, who holds a doctorate in sports management, has become a leading voice in social justice in athletics during her work at Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business.

“I put together a report at that time of the number of schools in New York State that had this kind of imagery,” Staurowsky, who will return to Ithaca College’s Roy H. Park School of Communications as a professor of sports media this fall, said of her work in 2001.

“The approach that was being taken at that point, from the Department of Education’s perspective, was that they were very persuaded that this imagery was not in the best educational interest of students, that it perpetuated racial stereotypes and that it did not provide the kind of framework for a full discussion that would lead to deep appreciation about race issues,” she told The Post-Journal.

But Native-associated nicknames still existed and battles over them continued. But, in Jamestown, very little outcry was heard from Seneca leadership, according to a quotation from the May 15, 2001 edition of the Buffalo News by then-JHS athletic director Wally Huckno.

“If we get the feeling from Native American groups that it’s inappropriate, we’ll address it. But at this point, no on’s come forth,” Huckno told the News’ Mary Jo Monnin. “We kind of felt it was more of a statement giving them (Native Americans) some glory – looking up to them, like someone we’d like to emulate.”

Retired JPS Superintendent, Raymond Fashano, corroborated Huckno’s claim recently, saying the movement “very low key in 2001” compared to the recent movement. While there were conversations in response to Mills’ memo, no action was taken at the time, Fashano said.

“While we were sensitive to the use of the word ‘red,’ we waited for the Native Americans to voice a concern,” he explained. “They never contacted me, either by letter or phone call, therefore, we always felt that ‘Raider Pride’ meant something very positive and nothing derogatory toward this population.”

Slowly, however, districts across the state began making some sort of change in response to what Staurowsky characterized as a “strong recommendation,” rather than a forced mandate. But, according to the USA Today Network New York, 50 high schools throughout the New York State Public High School Athletic Association still utilize Native nicknames or depict Native culture.

“It was clear that (NYSED) wanted this to happen, but they also wanted to give schools time to make the appropriate adjustments, to have conversations in their communities,” she added. “When any kind of change occurs, the change can either happen in good faith or it can happen in a way that really fuels resistance.”

She added, “I think that the reason for making a recommendation as compared to a mandate was intended to really, at the heart, to get educators to really think about all of their students. If there are messages, barriers, conduct that is being encouraged where certain people are being targeted for whatever reason, then we need to rethink that — at a humane level, at an educational level.”