Four Iowa Democrats introduced a bill to phase out Native American mascots in Iowa public and private schools by 2024, which one Indigenous organization said is long overdue.
HF 2224 was introduced by Molly Donahue (D-Cedar Rapids), Brian Meyer (D-Des Moines), Art Staed (Cedar Rapids), and Mary Wolfe (D-Clinton). The bill would prohibit schools from having or adopting a name, symbol, or image that depicts or refers to a Native American tribe, individual, custom, or tradition to be used as a mascot, nickname, logo, letterhead, or team name of the school.
Trisha Ertinger, operations director for the Great Plains Action Society, said her organization is in full support of HF 2224. The Great Plains Action Society is an Indigenous organization that tackles climate and social justice issues.
Ertinger, who is an enrolled member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska and Iowa, said when Iowa implemented its ban on critical race theory last year—HF 802—Native American mascots should have automatically been removed.
“If Iowa’s public education system is solely focused on teaching math, reading, and other subjects alike, then there should be no room for cultural appropriation of a race of people,” Etringer said.
Multiple sections of HF 802 appear to back Etringer’s argument. One section states: “That any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of that individual’s race or sex.”
“Research has proven how harmful Native mascots, names, logos, and teams are,” Etringer said. “Personally, I never needed any research to validate how disrespected I felt after seeing other people dance around, chant, and dress up in an old-age Hollywood depiction of Native Americans.”
Were HF 2224 to become law, schools would have until Jan. 1, 2024, to comply. No action has been taken on the bill since it was introduced Feb. 2.
According to the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa (Meskwaki Nation), there are 66 schools in Iowa that still use Native American mascots.
The Mason City School District recently decided to end its use of the Mohawk nickname, a measure its school board stood by even after pressure from counter-protestors. Etringer and members of the Great Plains Action Society attended those meetings.
“Nothing brought more joy to my heart than seeing and being a part of history,” she said. “I feel that it is time to remove ALL Native American imagery, mascots, names, and all things alike so that our Indigenous youth can live and reside in Iowa without the fear of being mocked or falsely portrayed.
“Our Indigenous relatives are lawyers, doctors, scientists, artists, public elected officials… one thing we are NOT are mascots, logos, and teams.”
by Ty Rushing
2/07/21
5 Comments on "Iowa House Dems Introduce Bill to Remove Native American Mascots"
Here we have an example of a challenge facing Iowa Democrats in regard to the Iowa Democratic goal of appealing to more rural Iowans. When it comes to specific issues, Iowa Democrats are sometimes going to have to choose between “appealing to more rural Iowans” and “doing what is obviously right.”
And of course there are some rural Iowans who are going to think this mascot measure is a good idea. Odds are good, however, that they are are the ones who are already voting Democratic. And the same is going to hold true in regard to some other issues, ranging from racism to water pollution.
C.A. makes some good points. IDP spends too much time pandering and coddling the far-left “woke” party fringe. Both the far left and far right play to their respective base on social issues while economic issues will likely decide the 2022 mid-terms and 2024 elections. There is a reason why Iowa Democrats only hold one seat in Congress, and zero in the Senate and Republicans have the governorship also.
Good lord, those comments are disturbing – – it is just flat out racist to use a Native American stereotype as a school mascot, and to pretend otherwise is disingenuous at best, and to assume that the majority of rural Iowans are just fine with that brand of racism is condescending and incorrect – I represent rural Iowans and one of them requested that I file this bill and I agreed to do so because it’s the right thing to do and fyi neither she nor I are members of the “far -left woke party fringe” whatever that is and also I’ve gotten nothing but positive emails from my rural constituents re the bill. But don’t worry, the majority party also thinks the bill is unacceptably “woke” surprise and so the bill won’t even get a subcommittee hearing and so it’ll just die a quiet death happy now?
Wait a minute. I only wrote what I wrote myself. I did not write what Pat Kinnick wrote. Pat can answer for Pat’s comment.
I do think that a significant number of rural Iowans, and more rural Iowans than urban Iowans , don’t like changing Native American names even though it is abundantly obvious that some names should be changed for compelling reasons that include racism. I base that on having watched situations in Iowa involving both mascots and place names. For example, I watched one renaming situation that involved a purple county and a red one, and the majority of objections came from the red county.
And why should that be surprising? That same county voted for Trump and the current Iowa trifecta. I have Democratic friends who live in red counties, but they are under no illusion that most of their neighbors agree with them. And I would not be surprised if rural Iowans who object to a renaming would generally not be the ones to contact officials who support the renaming.
And I did not say that introducing and working for the mascot bill is the wrong thing to do. I said that there are going to be conflicts sometimes between appealing to “more” rural Iowans, meaning the ones who are purple and red, and doing what is “obviously right.” I believe that. I don’t like it, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. And saying it doesn’t mean that I think that bills like the mascot bill should not be introduced and supported. I’m saying that the goal of getting more Democratic votes in rural Iowa is going to conflict sometimes with supporting some Democratic values. Sometimes choices will have to be made.
I also think some Democratic legislators believe that. And that might help explain some Democratic votes in the Statehouse that, for example, aren’t good for Iowa water quality, but do support industrial agriculture.
The names of school mascots should be decided locally, and certainly not dictated by the state of Iowa or heaven forbid the federal govt. If a local school district wants to change the name of the mascot – more power to them. With that said, we have the highest inflation in forty years and our politicians are focusing on these type of lightweight issues instead of economic and “lunchpail issues”? IDP used to identify with hard-working middle class Iowans prior to wokeness, defund the police, santuary cities, and other leftwing extremists. A red tide is coming in November unless the party finds the middle again.