All over the place, awakened people are facing rebellion.
Communities are fighting to restore local traditions after the spread of cancel culture in recent years has watered down Native American images, nicknames and tributes in hundreds of schools across the country.
“We are actually fighting an anti-American movement,” Lisa Davis, a pro-Native American activist in Cedar City, Utah, told Fox News Digital.
Pennsylvania’s newly elected school board brings back Native American mascot, rejects cancel culture
“The people who are trying to erase Native American culture are the same people who are trying to eliminate Thomas Jefferson and bash American heritage.”
Davis and other Cedar City residents formed the grassroots organization VOICE (Voice of Iron County Education) after the school board voted in 2019 to eliminate the high school’s traditional Redmen name and logo.
Julia Kaduse, a Navajo, graduated from Cedar City High School in Utah. She calls herself an “out-and-out red man.” The local school board revoked the school’s nickname and Native American imagery in 2019, despite widespread public support for its name and heritage. (Courtesy of Julia Casuse/Navajo Crafting Co.)
“It was an honor to be called Redman,” Cedar City High School graduate and “full-blooded Navajo” Julia Kasuze told Fox News Digital.
“I’m a red man through and through,” the silversmith reportedly told visitors to his family’s shop, Navajo Crafting Company.
The current nickname of the school is “Reds”.
Native American groups that called for the removal of the “Redskins” are funded by the Soros Foundation and other left-wing groups
But Cedar City residents haven’t forgotten the irony of this new name. “We went from respecting centuries of American and Native American history to respecting communism,” Davis said.
“The people who are trying to erase Native American culture are the same people who are trying to eliminate Thomas Jefferson and bash American heritage.”
“This is a terrible injustice to these communities,” Eunice Davidson, a Dakota Sioux and president of the Native American Guardian Association (NAGA), told FOX News Digital.
She and others argue that decisions to remove Native American images, nicknames and logos are made by local school boards, often under pressure from well-funded outside forces.
School officials in Iron County, Utah, forced Cedar City High School to remove its traditional Redmen nickname and logo in 2019. However, the community raised funds to demonstrate their commitment to local heritage in the town’s water tank, which is a prominent local landmark. (Courtesy of VOICE (Voice of Iron County Education))
“This decision has never had the support of the public,” said Davidson, whose organization is based in North Dakota.
“Taxpayers are being shunned and school boards are no longer interested. This is Marxism and it’s taking over school boards.”
Grassroots group VOICE claims 79% of local residents voted in favor of the Redmen in a recent Change.org poll.
battles all over the country
Communities across the country are waging similar battles.
Activists in Killingly, Conn., are fighting to restore the town’s Red Men heritage after it was trampled upon by a state-wide order to wipe out Native American heritage.
Cambridge, New York, is taking a fight to protect its beloved Native American heritage in court after a board of regents announced plans to trample Native American history across the Empire State.
Local residents recently voted in two new pro-Native American candidates to the school board, including Iroquois Dillon Hon.
From left, Joe Wilson, Bill Hall, Jennifer Henkel, Jeremy Nash, and Nathan Henkel were all elected to the Southern York County (Pennsylvania) School District Board of Education in November 2023. They ran on a pro-Native American platform. They voted in January to bring back the local high school’s Native American logo and mascot in January 2024. (Courtesy of Jennifer Henkel)
“When you think about Native Americans, all the icons you see represent strength, honor and pride. They are always positive symbols that represent the strength of our heritage,” Oniusto said in an interview with WAMC Northeast Public. said in an interview.
The Southern York County, Pennsylvania, school board voted in January to allow Susquehannock High School to reinstate the traditional Warriors name and logo.
The decision comes after five new school board members were elected on pro-Indigenous lines in the November election.
“This decision has never had the support of the people…It’s Marxism and it’s taking over the school board.”
“This movement is about erasing Native American culture, and I had no intention of supporting that,” said Jennifer Henkel, a mother of three and one of the new school board members. previously told FOX News Digital.
The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), a powerful organization based in Washington, D.C., has led efforts to erase Native American images from communities across the country. The organization is funded by taxpayers and benefactors such as George Soros’s Open Society Foundations.
Sandusky High School in Michigan was forced to erase its Redskins identity despite local support. Local activist Rick Spiegel said the Redskins are more than a stereotype or a mascot. This is a portrait of the famous Blackfeet Chief John Two Guns White Calf. (Courtesy of Rick Spiegel)
“Since 2019, NCAI has tracked the retirement of more than 200 unauthorized Native ‘themed’ mascots and has supported legislation in multiple states that would ban the use of these mascots,” the group said. he said in a statement to Fox News Digital last year.
The group is also largely responsible for efforts to force the NFL franchise in Washington, D.C., to remove the traditional Redskins name and the familiar Native American face that appeared on the team’s helmets.
Blackfoot Chief John Two Guns White Calf fought for the Native American cause and counted President Calvin Coolidge among his spheres of influence.
In a 2013 report, the NCAI asserted that “stereotypical images of Native Americans, widely consumed in commercial and educational settings, denigrate, disparage, and denigrate Native Americans,” and that the Redskins and other tilted public opinion against the image of indigenous peoples.
Introducing Chief Leni Lenape Tammany, an American revered as a “patron saint” until his cancellation.
However, the report provided questionable content. Among other omissions, the report’s lengthy history of the Redskins included no mention of Blackfoot Chief John Two Guns White Calf — who was the face of the franchise for 48 years. Despite that.
He was one of the most influential Native Americans of the 20th century. He fought for the cause of Native Americans and brought President Calvin Coolidge into his sphere of influence.
His proud facade was featured on Redskins helmets from 1972 until it was canceled in 2020. NCAI removed his name from the franchise’s history.
Left, Chief Blackfoot John Two Guns White Calf was the inspiration for the Washington Redskins logo (right), which represented the NFL franchise on the field from 1972 to 2020. The franchise’s original logo, founded in 1932, was inspired by Chief Lenni Lenape. Tammany is called “America’s Patron Saint” by the Founding Fathers and the generations who fought in the American Revolution. (Getty Images)
Fox News Digital has reached out to NCAI for further comment.
But communities across the country are fighting to save the Chief White Calf Redskins logo.
Voters in Sandusky, Michigan, were reminded of the three school board members who voted to eliminate the Redskins. They then elected three new school board members who ran on a promise to bring back the Redskins.
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Rick Spiegel, a Sandusky activist who is leading the effort to reclaim the Redskins, said 2,100 registered voters in town responded to a mail survey and 90 percent supported the traditional name.
A survey at the high school found that 74% of students and 53% of teachers supported the Redskins.
Still, Sandusky High School’s team is now known as the Wolves.
“They are trying to erase or eradicate Native American history,” Spiegel said.
A digital sign with the Redskins logo. Seen outside Red Mesa High School on October 15, 2014 in Red Mesa, Arizona. Red Mesa Redskins is a small Navajo school located in northeastern Arizona. The Redskins made him the school’s mascot in 1974. After several students were asked to come up with a mascot for the school, a student named Raymond Oldman came up with the name. The school is located on the Navajo reservation, and when you ask Navajo people about their mascot, most people are proud to be Redskins. The team’s logo is a replica of the NFL team formerly known as the Washington Redskins. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The Michigan communities of Camden, Paw Paw and Port Huron are waging similar battles to preserve local traditions, he said.
The Red Mesa (Ariz.) High School Redskins installed a new football field last year with the Redskins logo emblazoned on the 50-yard line.
Students at Wellpinit (Washington) High School have voted to keep the school’s Redskins mascot in place in March 2023, rejecting calls by local Democratic leaders to erase their history and heritage.
According to the Department of Education, 87% of students are Native American.
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Kingston (Oklahoma) High School is another Native American-majority school that embraces the Redskins.
“The people I’ve talked to are proud of our name and that our mascot is the Redskins,” Kingston athletic director Taylor Wiebener told KXII.com in 2020. Ta.
Members of the Native American Guardians Association (NAGA) launched a petition in June 2023 asking the NFL’s Washington Commanders to restore the historic Redskins name and image. NAGA historian Andre Billeaudeau, rear center, blames “toxic ignorance” for efforts to remove images of Indigenous people from sports and popular culture across the country. NAGA President Eunice Davidson (far-right) said the push to remove Native American images from sports and popular culture is being fueled by professors and academics who are “woke racist white people.” (Courtesy of Native American Guardians Association)
Native American activist Andre Billeaudeau said students and residents in Donna, Texas, and McLeod, Oklahoma, have repeatedly expressed support for the Redskins identity despite constant pressure.
Kazuse, a Navajo graduate of Utah’s Cedar City High School, claims his allegiance to the Redmen began when he arrived at the school from the Navajo reservation in New Mexico in the 1960s.
She felt homesick when she attended her first home football game.
“It gave me a sense of honor…It was a feeling of pride for me and a sense of my heritage.”
“Suddenly I heard a very strong native beat, the school song,” she said. “It stopped me in my tracks. It was amazing hearing that sound and the beautiful indigenous music.”
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Suddenly, she felt like she was at home, she said, adding that she was a member of a pep club in high school.
“It gave me a sense of honor. I was never ashamed of it, and I didn’t feel any prejudice. It was a feeling of pride for me, a feeling of pride in myself. It was a sense of tradition.”
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