Indian mascot commission seeks to re-write dictionary
The state commission charged with adjudicating which Colorado schools must expunge their “American Indian mascots” devolved further into a kangaroo court last week. Chaired by Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera, the Colorado Commission on Indian Affairs was required to “identify each public school in the state that is using an American Indian mascot” by July 28 of last year.
More than eight months later, the commission is now considering whether to add seven new schools as potential violators for using “Thunderbird” as their mascot. At an April 6 meeting, CCIA began discussing whether these mascots violate the law which prohibits “names, symbols or images that depict or refer to an American Indian tribe, individual, custom or tradition.”
Ironically, when the commission released its initial list of schools with affected mascots last July, it did include one with a Thunderbird mascot – Johnson Elementary in Montrose which fields no teams and merely displays a Thunderbird logo.
So, how did CCIA find little Johnson Elementary but fail to notice at least seven other schools, including Aurora’s Hinkley High School and Cherry Creek’s Thunder Ridge Middle School, that use the same mascot? (more…)