Absolutly NOT, a mascot is not in place to offended anyone it is a name to be proud of, and no matter what your school mascot name is the students will celebrate, cheer and defened the name for generations. It is a school tradition and should not be changed.

I think the political correctness has gone too far, if we can't have any heritage representing in america without offending anyone, we should all become plane jane, joe, america.

It seems to me that a defined group of Society would appreciate the noteriety rather than consider it Racially incorrect. If the Schools were prohibited from using the Social group names, you can bet they (the groups) would be crying "racially motivated".
Polical correctness gone all wrong!

why don't we have the minorities, illegal aliens, tree huggers, and gay people pick out the mascots and the names, since it is these people that are crying and whining to the press to be heard. Let the majority be heard and quit shoving shit down our throats. go back to the closet - we were happier when you were there

Who is spearheading the removal of any references to our history and relationship with the Native Americans? Has anyone asked the Native Americans if they are offended? If people are afraid of offending other people, they really can never be honest and should not be living in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Perhaps we should make conventional naming illegal and assign random SKU numbers to everything and everybody.

I am a graduate of Lebanon Union High School, Lebanon Oregon.

It has been my experience that it's mascot name of "Lebanon Warriors" was never a demeaning or belittleing name, but rather one of an honorable or noble name. It (Warriors) impressed upon young minds the idea of fighting for a common cause that unites a community, especially in the sports arena.

My wife is of Native American decendance, and was pleased to see that our mascot was of a Warrior. She saw it as placing the Native American icon in high standards, and a positive influence on our youth.

In this day and age of "Me First", I find it hard to beleave that taking away that Native American (rally for a common cause) influence in todays selfish culture is a positve influence on our young. But rather, I think that we need it more now than ever.

It is my personal belief that to take this away is an act of "the tail wagging the dog".

Absolutely not. The word WARRIOR predates the rest of the world knowing anything about indians. It goes back to the ancient mid-east.

Is there really an outcry to change these mascots? I agree with the comment saying that mascots are something to be proud of. I'm Alaska Native and I'm not offended by the names that refer to American Indians or whatever you want to call us; the images are a little ridiculous sometimes but, hey, if someone is proud to call themselves a Redskin, then I can't blame them. I know I am!

Absolutely NO !..

Yes, it is very demeaning. I surmise most of the comments are coming from 'non Natives'. The terms are very offensive. This issue is not about one's allegence to a school,group,team.
We know one loves their own school - this issue is about the 'name'.
Your love of your school,group,team will not change because of a name change. No, this social adjustment is not 'going too far'.
This social adjustment is way past due in decades. We change many things for the Black community and somehow have slipped correcting our attitude for the First Natives.

Well, I find it quite odd that 20 years ago no one was was bothered in the slightest way by any mascot name..... no matter what it might be. I myself am part snoqualmie indian, and I nor any of the other many indians I know ever even give a second thought to these types of names. How lost in life must a person be, how much free time must they have in order to be concerned with such non issues as this.
Have people really become this emotionally sensative?? Have they??
Every body wants to be a victem in todays world. I guess it adds excitement to thier own boring lives???

I find it troubling that we want to change anything about our cultures. I come from a town where we take pride in our high school and being a Rebel. The sameone me, my parents and someday hopefully my children will all be able to take pride in that. Being the Rebels is being part of our community, to remove the Rebels as your mascot would be like uprooting the whole community and moving it away. Are they going to change that too because that could be offencive to other ethnic groups? For it would not unfair to others to change school mascots because it could be offencive to Native Americans without changing other potentualy other offencive mascots.

At some point, one has to draw the line between whats offensive to the majority and minority. However, I can see the opposing side's point. I am Jewish and to have a team baring the Jewish star is just galling.( ie. Soccer team in Holland, called "Maccabee's) I dont love it, but I wouldnt demand from them to change the name.
I do agree however that forcing school teams to change the mascots is a pointless waste of money.
Why not prohibit future teams from adopting Native themes? ( instead of foring change on ones already instated.)
After removing the mascots we should move on to sue Lucky Charms for their Irish Leprechaun. That littls guy I think is more offensive then "Cheif's"

Luckily our society doesn't need to deal with anything else at the present time, Paris is keeping relatively quite, so lets look at this. I think all we need to do silence the PC enforcers is insert the tribe's name in front of the PI school mascot. The degrading "The Warriors" might have their names switched to something less degrading such as "The Cowlitz Warriors" or "The Chinook Chieftans"

I will add this: Any school mascot is best known for it's representation of thier athletic department. These indian names are used out of white mans great admiration for our (us native Americans) natural warrior spirit. I am honored by these names. Absolutely no school, university, or professional team would use a name that would represent thier team as being weak. Just the opposite, they use these names to represent themselves as being great. I take each and every one as a compliment.

I am Jewish and to have a team baring the Jewish star is just galling.
Posted by: Rivka at August 1, 2007
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well maybe you should share your feeling with that rabbi who threatend to sue seatac if they wouldnt let them display thier minorah or what ever it was. no matter what somebody is gonna feel like somebody else is cramming something down thier throats.

Usually a question of racism is not a question. I say this because on the whole it is a blantant degrading thing. Having said that, let us look at this on a sociological, and an anthropological level from a psychological view for a moment. If a thing is racism it is on the whole due to cultural pressure. A pressure of society and of human tradition. Now let us pose the question. Do you name your sports team after something blatantly or even mildly for that matter degrading? Or do you name it after something inspiring. Somthing that invokes greatness and heroism. something that you admire and that invokes admiration. Even if it is not from your culture. I believe there is no question here of racism only clumsy attempts at being P.C. Clearly we have racism and deep troubles with it. But it is not here.

I think that the decision to change the high school mascots is long overdue and should have been dealt with much sooner. Native Americans have been prejudiced against for hundreds of years, were herded onto reservations, and expected to deal with this huge life change. The government refuses to this day to acknowledge some of their rights and has withered their existence down to mere mascots for baseball teams and high schools. How sad.

This is just getting so out of hand. Get a grip! Why is it that everyone thinking it's done out of racism. I'm (supposedly) white my decendents come from Italy and that's what I think about everyday is how to offend someone. I'm sure when they were naming these schools they were thinking how many people can we offend!! Everyone can have a opinion, but why do they need to take it so far.....

Why should schools have to change their mascot's or names unless they are "truely" offensive? We should respect the Native American names and their Culture, and not disgrace them saying they are offensive. Doing that would say our Native Americans and their heritage has no place in our society. People like to find ways about anything to claim it is offensive these days. Get a life people !! What do we need to do? Name schools 1,2,3,4,?

We beat the Indians fair and square, and therefore won the right to name our schools whatever we desire. It is not degrading to be a mascot. It is an honor we bestow on our Indian brethren for being good sports about the fact we practically exterminated them. Seriously though, for all the people complaining about political correctness run amok: Is the name of a school mascot really that important? If it offends a group of people on a racial level it should be changed.

All the idiots who think mascots in Oregon need to be changed to more politically correct things need to drive back down I-5 to California where they came from.

Children use their mascots as a positive icon for their teams. Why on earth would someone be offended by this? What next.. someone might be offended by the name of a child and demand that it be changed because they attend public schools. I myself would be thrilled if my name or part of my family heritage were to be used in such a possitive manner.

What in the world could be so offensive about mascot names? This seems to me that what it all boils down to is someone is keeping up with the Joneses. One group complains about sticks and stone so another has to complain to keep up. In my opinion this kind of retoric exibits nothing but the ridiculous simple minded insecruities of a small group of people. I'm certain that if any research was done they would find that no group is truly affected by sticks and stones.

Being of Norwegian descent, I am also offended, where is the outcry against the "Vikings" team names and mascots? If you think that is a ridiculous question, ask yourself why it is any more ridiculous than removing every Native American (or any other racial/cultural) reference from sports teams. This rush to political correctness has gone too far, especially since it takes money from classrooms to revamp fields, scoreboards, uniforms and other "potentially offensive" items that will need to be changed.

Get a grip....
knights, braves, pirates, vikings, Cowboys,
patriots, chiefs, Loggers, warriors....

All of those names are mascots, what makes the ones based on Native Americans any more insulting then those based on other historically significant groups of people?

Stop creating problems where none really exist.

Absolutely NO! The PC has gone too far; schools are proud to be representing the country's heritage. The Indian's have returned to the forefront with casinos, land purchasing which is non-taxed as we are, and the Federal programs in public schools PROMOTE not only their heritage and culture but RELIGIOUS beliefs - which Christians can NOT do. (It's time to speak up - and wake up!!!!!!!!! A retired public school teacher.)

If it is racially or culturally offensive, then it should be changed. No exceptions.
Anyone who disagrees is a full of hate and needs to change their ways to be more accepting of cultures different from their own.

No! What nonsense! These sorts of things are always engineered by a tiny number of screwballs who enjoy lording it over the rest of us. I suspect that most Native Americans are not offended in the least. When the PC police tried to force the change of the Florida State mascot, the Seminole tribe intervened. They had always considered it an honor that the FSU mascot was named after their tribe.

First off, there seems to be alot of anger coming from this post..Why?? If a school must change its name let it happen. If anyone is familar with the hardship that Native Americans have overcome, then you will know what it is to be "Brave". Its not the fact that "Brave" or "Chief" is used but, its the sacred painting and dressing that goes along with the name. Oh yeah, and why would any culture want angry people to represent their heritage?? look at the majority of the blogs..EXACTLY.

Absolutely not. Give me break, what a waste of tax payer money to change all the uniforms around. What are we suppose to change all are mascots to puppy dogs, and insects, well wait a minute we can't do that either that might offend PETA

The reference to WARRIOR has been used for generations and has applied to many different ethnic groups in times of battle. As a 30 year military veteran I have know WARRIORS. I dare anyone to call them something different. My dad was called Chief out of respect for his heritage. Let's keep the mascot names and ignore those that have nothing better to do but complain.

Let's think about this for a moment:

1) Most of the mascots that are in question, have been around for a long, long time.
2) There never used to be any serious complaining about it until about '95 and has grown steadily since.
3) In all but about 3 cases where Universities were asked to change their name, the local Native American tribes stepped in and said "No" leave it as is. Those that did change, did not have a local Native American community to ask, so they changed it.

The question should be WHY have the names become offensive. I have two theories on this:

1) The media glamorizes it for ratings and now that we have 24hr, worldwide news coverage, the media always has a need for a story or a cause.

2) No one was overly offended by the name or the person in the mascot costume. They were really offended by the chants, chops and other actions of the fans that was in poor taste(case in point, the Atlanta Braves "chop" while everyone joins in with an alleged rendition of a Native American war chant. What's easier: change the name of the mascot or change the behavior of those who think it is funny to mock others. That's easy: change the name.

Most people here are correct that the intention of these names was to inspire pride and to show our fondness for the spirit of the Native Americans because in hindsight, there are not many civilizations throughout history that have truely stuck together and held tight to their heritage. Most others eventually change to fit in.

There is nothing anyone can ever do that someone won't be able to find offense with. But truely, we ALL need to stop our holier-than-thou attitude of "if you don't like it, SHOVE IT" because it is that attitude that is truely offensive. Not the name of a school mascot. And my high school mascot was the Warriors and we were proud of it, just like we should have been.

go to the fighting whites web site, lets have a few comments on that.

GOOD GRIEF NO !!! I went to Monrovia, Arcadia and Duarte high school. We were know as the MAD high school. I guess they will just have to prescribe pro-zac for me so I can recover from the trama of being MAD. (tongue in cheek)

"GOOD GRIEF NO !!!" Hey Kathleen Lazare what, are you Charlie Brown? ... I mean...Charlie White?

Dear anonymous........ Wow!!! Only cowards are afraid to print their names.

I'm an idiot!

Absolutly!!! This is long over due. I am an animal rights activist. It is time for a change. I don't have a problem with insect names.
We need the Washington Ants, the Washington State Beatles, the Oregon Wasps, and the Oregon State Butterflys. Am still thinking for a team to change to the cockroaches, (there must be a California team that qualifies.)
While we are at it, let's get rid of all of those offensive commnity and landmark names after Native Americans. I kind of lean toward Elm City, Rockport, Grand Junction, Mayberry or Cabot Cove.
Lastly, are we ready to have General Motors remove the shameless exploiation of Pontiac on their automobiles? Lets not go half way with this political correctness. Lets go whole hog!! Oops, sorry, hog is an animal. Lets go full bore. Oh, oh, boar is a hog. Ok than lets go full speed.

I could see this being an issue if there was a team called 'The Nazis', However, in the end, lawyers have to make their money somehow.

"Help, We're being repressed!". BLOODY PEASANTS!
- Monty Python "Holy Grail"

Absolutely! In fact I believe that Mascots should be banned. Not only is there the potential to racially offend, but what about the rights of animals? I believe that most animals without a doubt find the concept of Mascots offensive! I know that my Sheppard becomes visibly upset during half time when Mascots are shown on the T.V. In fact I’ve had to eliminate almost all cartoons because he becomes so upset. Scooby Do® had him snarling at the T.V. It’s reached the point I have to be very careful in what I watch because one Saturday morning Sylvester and Tweedy Bird® came on and he literally jumped up and ran out the Canine Access door (I discovered he found the term “Doggy-Door®” to be offensive, which is another problem in its self with many trademarks). No we as Homo sapiens (I find that most Animals find the term “Man” to be demeaning) need to really rethink how we choose to portray all other living beings. Because let’s face it, before Homo sapiens began this brutal onslaught beginning with cave drawings, this crisis didn’t’ exist!

Hasn't this topic been covered in the news before? I swear I've heard this same story before. Is it just guilt about Native Americans that continually brings this up. Does anyone actually care or is it just another distraction from the more important issues in this country?

Yes, mascots that are racially offensive should be banned. I can not believe that the major concern of this decision is cost. Native Americans should adopt some ideas from the 1960's Civil Rights Movements. Then I'm sure the focus would be on racial equality instead of cost.

I am sick of the whining by our "Native Americans"!! My ancestors were conquered by the Romans, Attilla the Hun, Genghis Kahn, The Normans, the Vikings, and the British, to name a few. None of them offered my forebears treaties, reservations, reparations, hunting & fishing rights, or anything other than the choice to assimilate or die. It was the best thing that could have happened to my ancestors, because they choose to live, grow, and ultimately become stronger than their conquerors. Giving school mascots native names is the highest type of compliment to the peoples from whom the names came. Unfortunately, the peoples whom these mascots are named after have become, themselves, undeserving of the honor. They have become weak, powerless, whiny children, unable to grow beyond the 19th Century. If they want to be called anything American, it's time they started using their heritage, talents, and resources to become proud, strong, 21st Century Americans, contributing as the rest of us do to make this a great country.

The Vikings offend me, because my children are Swedish. The Crusaders offend Jews, as do religious crusades. The Yankees offend those in the Northeast. The Rebels offend Southerners. The Cowboys offend ranch hands. The Lumberjacks offend forestry workers, who are already deeply offended by owls. The Devils offend bad people everywhere. The Pirates offend all sea-going peoples. The Trojans offend . . . well, I won't go there.

I think we should have a team called the White Crackahs. That'll work!

The "Rockies" pummeled the "Rattlesnakes" and the "Redsocks" just beat up on the "Indians". Tomorrow evening the "Rockies" will begin their conquest of the "Redsocks". I don't believe that the people in Colorado or Boston are offended at this point in time. Perhaps after it is over the Bostonians will start to complain. Oh well that's the way it is.