Some Native Americans have said using the name Redmen as a school mascot at Killingly is without a doubt racist.
"We're at a time where our ancestors' pain and decimation are fantasized, rebranded and commercialized," Angelina Casanova-Bell, national legislative affairs manager for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation located in southeastern Connecticut, told CNN.
Her tribe, along with other local Native American groups, have issued various statements condemning Killingly's use of the mascot, so tribal members were surprised to hear that the Redmen mascot was reinstated, she said. "We often hear from people, especially at high schools that use Native themed mascots, that it evokes some sense of nostalgia from their days in high school, but we don't feel honored by it," Casanova-Bell said. "It disregards our personhood. There's this idea that Native Americans aren't real, that we don't exist, and we do."
Reinstating the mascot comes at a time where various professional sports teams are being criticized for using Native American imagery. Native American groups have been fighting to change the name of the Washington Redskins, Casanova-Bell said, and the Cleveland Indians
dropped the Native American caricature Chief Wahoo from the Major League Baseball team's uniforms in 2018.
Supporter calls original mascot a 'symbol of pride'
Backing the reinstatement of the Redman name was Raymond Wood II, a Native American member of the Nipmuck tribe in Connecticut and Republican town councilman. He said he views the Redmen school mascot as a strong symbol of his own Native American heritage -- and is happy to see it displayed across the school and the town. He notes that there is little Native American history being taught in the education curriculum and estimates that the Native American population in Killingly is around 1%. The Redmen name serves as a "symbol of pride" for Native Americans who have little representation in Killingly, he said, and not as a racist figure. "You want to eliminate the one thing that reminds this town of its Native American history? That's just wrong," Wood said.
Wood grew up in Killingly, and is proud of the school football team that has won various state championships, he said. The Redmen name represents "the ferocity of native Americans in war," and he says the school football team shows this same spirit.
But not all supporters of the football team agree with Wood. Kevin Marcoux, the director of athletics at Killingly High School, said at a December Board of Education meeting that "the rest of the state is wondering what is wrong with Killingly," according to a written version of his statement, which he provided to CNN. At the December meeting, Marcoux said that reinstating the mascot would only embroil the school in more negative press and make it hard for him to recruit new students.
"I'm not sure how much more clear that established tribes can voice their disapproval for Native American mascots," he said. "Two of the biggest tribes in the country reside a short drive from here, neither support the Redmen mascot."
Terren Allen, a 2019 graduate of Killingly, was a student representative on the board of education. She fought to retire the Redmen mascot from the school, so she feels "very disappointed" that the name was reinstated, she said. "But I have to stay positive and have pride in the fact that I did change some people and educated some people," she said. She often was one of the only people of color in her classes, she told CNN, which made her feel like it was her duty to speak up for people that don't have a platform to do so. "For people that struggle with racism all the time it's a battle that we are constantly fighting," Allen said.
Republican members who voted in favor of reinstating the Redmen title told CNN that they wanted to represent the majority opinion for the town.
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