Louis Sockalexis

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Maine banned Native American mascots. ‘Why haven’t others followed?’ by The Bangor Daily News Editorial Board       January 2, 2021 The BDN Editorial Board operates independently from the newsroom, and does not set policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com. “Maine remains only state to fully ban Native American mascots. Why haven’t others followed?” USA Today asked in a headline last week. It’s a good question. In May … [Read more...]

http://sockalexis.net/2021/01/785/

Celebrating end of Indian mascots in Maine high schools

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SPECIAL TO THE MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM MAINE VOICES: No schools in Maine retain Native American nicknames, mascots – that’s something to celebrate The focus has been on the bill banning the practice in the future, but it should be on the heroes who brought about its end. Can’t begin to grasp why 330 million Americans are incapable of reaching a peaceful consensus about a statue of Columbus or a Confederate general, or whether sports teams should be using a Native American nickname and … [Read more...]

Skowhegan has opportunity again to cleanse itself of insensitive mascot

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The "Indian" mascot of Skowhegan area schools is once again stirring debate in town. By Ed Rice, Special to the BDN • January 22, 2019 I’m seeing two inconvenient truths as the Skowhegan Area High School’s 23-member school board — again — considers whether to do the right thing, and end its use of an insensitive Indians nickname and mascot, or, maintain the status quo by continuing to bury its head in the sand, bringing shame and condemnation upon its communities. Inconvenient Truth … [Read more...]

Hidden heroes have done the right thing on Indian mascots

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We don't hear enough about the schools that have stepped up over the last decade. BY ED RICE All through the late 1990s and well into the 2000s, I was part of the growing national movement to get the Cleveland Indians to drop Chief Wahoo — perhaps, the most racist caricature in use in American society. Frustration with that effort, ultimately successful after many years, led me to more than a decade of trying to work to see that all such offensive nicknames and mascots end in my home state … [Read more...]

Skowhegan adults desperately need a mascot lesson. Students could teach it to them

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Ed Rice Special to the Bangor Daily News Recently, a friend of mine, who was an anti-Vietnam War activist, had a surprising message for me, concerning my involvement in a now six-year campaign to end the use of Native American nicknames and mascots in my home state of Maine. Yes, it was all the way back in May 2010 that I, the author of a book on Louis Sockalexis (the first-known Native American baseball player who remains victimized by the city of Cleveland for inspiring a disrespectful … [Read more...]

Maine’s do-nothing Board of Education needs to take on school mascot disrespect

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Special to the Bangor Daily News Posted March 30, 2016, at 4:12 p.m. I know many conservatives revere the notion of “local control.” But I believe here in Maine, probably as a direct result of five combative, wholly divisive years of ultra-conservative LePage administration policies, we have come face to face with a very sinister version of this philosophy that merely allows elected officials to ignore injustice and abrogate governmental responsibility. It is now a little more than one … [Read more...]

Skowhegan ‘Indian Pride’ website continues to denigrate Native Americans

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By Ed Rice (Centralmaine.com, Nov. 13, 2015) Recent use of an alcohol reference is particularly harmful, considering how white people used it to control the native peoples. Since the French, the British and colonial Americans invaded North America, the use of alcohol helped white people to subjugate Native Americans in all manner of nefarious ways and made the indigenous peoples subservient to their respective wills. They cheated them in basic trades for furs and goods, stole lands from … [Read more...]

It’s up to students to end Skowhegan mascot dilemma

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By Ed Rice (Centeralmaine.com Oct. 2, 2015) The decision to keep the 'Indian' name makes School Administrative District 54 into a statewide pariah with each successive embarrassing and humiliating headline. Skowhegan Area High School is keeping the entire state from declaring that Maine is the first state in the country to end the practice of school use of Native American nicknames and mascots. As one Skowhegan school official recently noted, sadly, “We have a target on our … [Read more...]

Institutionalized racism is embarrassing for Skowhegan schools

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When will town officials, education officials, and faculty, staff and students at Skowhegan Area High School stand up to the 11 or 12 members of the school board who do more thinking backwards than forwards, surrounded by a small but volatile group of residents who threaten and mock the very people they are said to be “honoring?” In the latest sorrowful episode, detailed in a recent BDN account, two “Save the Mascot” proponents, SAD 54 school board member Jennifer Pelotte Poirier and baseball … [Read more...]

On Indian mascots, Maine’s top school officials get failing grade

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By Ed Rice, Special to the Bangor Daily News Maine could be the first state in the U.S. to eradicate school use of Native American nicknames and mascots. But our effort to make that a reality has encountered two obstacles: 1. Maine’s four tribes have, in writing, asked Skowhegan Area High School, the sole school in the entire state employing a Native American nickname and mascot to, respectfully, please end its use of the name. The school board has refused. 2. Maine’s highest education … [Read more...]