ELMA, N.Y. (WKBW) — Several Elma residents showed up to attend a meeting at Iroquois school to understand the push to change Indigenous mascots across the state, including within Iroquois Central School District.
Missy Benzee, an alumnus at Iroquois High School of class 1988 tells 7 News reporter Yoselin Person that she was always proud of the Chiefs logo until her daughter, Megan Benzee, opened her eyes to what the logo really means to Indigenous people.
“I was proud of it. I was arguing with her and telling her a chief is someone to be proud of,” the mother says. “We’re honoring the chief and as Megan gave me her arguments I was like 'Oh boy' that sounds really silly.”
Her daughter Megan is a senior at Iroquois and was adopted when she was five-years-old in Guatemala.
Megan’s mom says that her blinders came off and saw more of the difficulties many Indigenous people like her daughter face when seeing their culture being appropriated.
“So being in a rural community is sometimes very difficult. We get looks,” Megan’s mother says. “They look at my husband and look at me. We have those looks. But I never applied that to the school I went too, Iroquois. I’m very proud to be a graduate. I didn’t realize what that meant until Megan opened my eyes.”
While Megan’s mom understands the reasons, others sitting at the meeting Monday night came to learn.
The school district held a presentation with Lake Shore Schools to present the reasons why having an Indigenous mascot in schools can be offensive.
A key point they brought up was the history of Native American boarding schools in the 19th and 20th centuries when Indigenous children were taken by White people from their families and stripped of their languages, cultures and identities.
“It’s because of the massive impact it has on native communities but that has remained unseen,” says Jacinta Garcia, an academic competence coordinator at Lake Shore Schools. “Native people have been trying to speak up about this a very long time, but it’s really gardening the support of our neighbors.”
And now nearly a year after the State Education Department announced schools with Indigenous mascots needed to change.
The deadline is approaching fast for Iroquois schools to make that change.
“So right now we’re accepting recommendations from the community,” says Superintendent Douglas Scofield of Iroquois Schools. “November we will be presenting those, and then December they will be voting to select the new name.”
The top 25 submissions will be chosen by a school committee, and will be voted by the general public.
The change will be made official for the 2024-2025 school year.
Meanwhile, Megan already has a suggestion for a new name.
“Iroquois bears. Bears are strong and mighty they’re big sometimes lovable creatures and bears have been depicted in Indigenous cultures for years,” she says.
