(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the final part of a two-part series analyzing Jamestown High School’s ‘Red Raider’ mascot amid a changing social landscape nationwide. Part One ran in the weekend edition of The Post-Journal.)

Ellen Staurowsky, a professor of sports media at Ithaca College, considers schools to be “sacred spaces in the American democracy.”

“They’re supposed to be places where they are safe havens for children,” the professor of sports media at Ithaca College insists.

But to Staurowsky, who has spent decades fighting for social justice in sports, Native American mascots, logos and nicknames used by school districts go against those ideals.

“Where things can begin to fall apart is that these images serve as encouragement for persistent, negative racial attitudes to continue,” she explained. “But, I think if we always come back to what is in the interest of every single student in the school, and frankly also for students who may be depending on the racial composition of the school – if it’s a majority white institution that’s using imagery like this, this does not serve any student. It isn’t just the harms that are being done for Native children, it’s the harms that are being done to non-Native children as well.”

Changing these images has been a hot topic of conversation as of late, both locally and nationally.

Jamestown Public Schools, like others across New York State, has reactivated a committee to examine its use of the “Red Raider” and subsequent imagery depicting feathers attached to a capital ‘J,’ while the Washington NFL franchise retired its former nickname, often considered to be a racial slur toward indigenous people, after sponsors threatened to void their sponsorship agreements.

Washington’s motive is problematic to Seneca-Iroquois National Museum director Joe Stahlman, one of three delegates appointed by Seneca Nation of Indians President Rickey L. Armstrong Sr. to assist with the issue in local school districts.

“The insulting part is, they wouldn’t listen to us as human beings and they only respond to dollars,” Stahlman said. “That doesn’t change anything either. That should not be the impetus for change. The impetus for change is for them to realize, ‘Wow, we’re all human beings and we all want to be treated like humans.’”

Jamestown retired the use of a caricature on its own merit that appeared on football helmets and other district branding, implementing a capital ‘J’ with a feather beginning in 2012. But, members of the Jamestown Justice Coalition and members of the community-at-large believe it’s not enough.

“The root of this issue is being culturally sensitive and respectful to people who have different beliefs, different skin colors, different walks of life and the way that we are treating them,” coalition member Autumn Echo told The Post-Journal in June. “We are at a time right now where being sensitive to the people around us is incredibly important and vital. Jamestown has an opportunity to set an example.”

Early July also saw state Sen. Pete Harckham, D-South Salem, propose legislation that would withhold state aid from school districts with “race-based mascots” after a three-year window. Harckham amended the legislation to mandate that districts using race-based mascots to discuss racial sensitivity during a meeting at least once a year and a requirement that such a meeting remain in effect “until a school district disassociates completely with such race-based mascot,” according to The Citizen out of Auburn.

But, during a July board meeting, JHS athletic director Ben Drake revealed that Native American imagery had not always been associated with the nickname – high school yearbooks from the 1940s show a panter or big cat-like animal as the athletic emblem.

“We’re not sure exactly the year that it moved from a panther to an Indian, but we think sometime in the 1960s they started using Native American imagery,” Drake said. “It certainly helps our cause, if you want to make an argument to keep our ‘Red Raiders’ that if we never had any other imagery besides a Native American, that could be a more of an argument to make. But the fact that the original ‘Red Raider’ had nothing to do with a Native American, I think, is important for people to know. At this point, most people aren’t aware of that.”

Added board vice president, Patrick Slagle, “I think it’s important the discussion that we can show that the name ‘Red Raiders’ wasn’t associated with any Native American imagery, that there was a panther and it was a name that existed for a long time before that. Unfortunately, you see some things out in the media that assume that the term ‘Red Raiders’ is a racial slur or some sort.”

But, Stahlman and Jason Corwin, executive director of Seneca Media and Communications Center, each still take issue with the nickname, noting that just because it was not always a Native American portrayal initially does not take away from the fact that it was and still is such.

“The name needs to change as well,” Corwin, who holds a doctorate in environmental education from Cornell University, said. “It’s been tarnished by the association and so, hanging on to the name is just as unacceptable as the logo really. This is an opportunity for Jamestown to rebrand itself.”

Added Stahlman, “What a lot of non-Native Americans don’t realize – they’ve got it skewed in their head somehow that this is a form of honor, but if you were to use some of those same caricatures for other ethnic groups in the United States, I think the outcry would be much louder and readily seen. I’m not sure why the Native American one seems to not get any press.”

The issue should also matter regardless of the size of the Native American population, Staurowsky said. Of note, 11 students enrolled in Jamestown Public Schools were listed as “American Indian or Alaska Native” during the 2018-19 school year according to the state Department of Education, registering statistically as 0% of its 4,515 total enrollment.

“I think it matters precisely and exactly because Native people are so underrepresented within that community,” she said. “Humanely, we all care about the issue and we have to care about the issue because we’re all connected to it whether it’s exactly in our neighborhood or not. The other issue though is the Seneca’s are their neighbors. At a basic, very fundamental human level, how do you treat your neighbors?”

But Corwin, meanwhile, is encouraged by the conversations he has had thus far with the district and its superintendent, Dr. Kevin Whitaker. But, should the district make the move to change its visual representation, he hopes it comes with a learning piece.

“We’ve expressed that we are open to doing in-services at our museum for Jamestown educators so they can learn more about Seneca history and culture and that there can be substantive additions to the curriculum that teaches students about what Seneca history is and who the Seneca contemporary nation of indigenous people are as neighbors to them. That’s a great opportunity that I hope the Jamestown school district takes advantage of,” he said.

“That would be truly honoring the Seneca Nation – to know who we are.”

And, though cautiously optimistic, there is one thing that makes Stahlman happy.

“I’m glad things happened this summer where a lot of Americans are starting to look at themselves a little bit deeper,” he said. “Unfortunately, sometimes people are responding to the national fervor going on, but I do see a lot of conscientious thought and dialogue going on and that does make me happy.”

He added, “I’m really happy that our young people are seeing the injustices because that does give me hope for the future and it gives me hope for places like Jamestown that those young people will not want this.”