The Gill-Montague Regional School Committee is trying hard to give everyone plenty of time and space to consider the Turners Falls High School “Indians” mascot.
A handful of residents have told the committee they think the mascot is offensive to actual American Indians and is especially inappropriate for a school named after a militia captain known for attacking a Native American village near the Great Falls where present day Gill and Montague come together.
The group, led by long-time Montague resident David Detmold, asked the committee to change the mascot name.
Perhaps remembering the protracted debate, animosity and lawsuit triggered by the proposal that eventually changed the Frontier “Redskins” to “Red Hawks,” Gill-Montague school officials are handling their request with utmost care.
Predictably, as soon as word spread that the committee had proposed a process for reviewing the mascot, battle lines began forming, with the traditionalists within a week attracting nearly 1,000 signatures to a petition for the status quo. That was followed by a counter-petition favoring a name change, although, so far, the number of signatories to the newer petition is smaller. And the debate had already been engaged on social media, on The Recorder’s website and in letters.
School Committee Chairman Michael Langknecht seems to want to give everyone plenty of time to breath before his committee delves too deeply into the arguments. So he has tried to make the discussion a two-step process: First, the committee is to consider whether it even wants to discuss the issue.
A ‘yes’ would be followed by a perhaps year-long series of public forums, meetings, educational programs … an information-gathering process that would include members of the community submitting information about the topic to the committee, pro and con. It could also include public forums where new mascot ideas would be submitted from the public and then a possible selection process for a new mascot.
“Whether or not the outcome of this process is a mascot name change, it is our hope that by engaging in a thoughtful community dialogue, we will all learn from one another and build trust and confidence in our ability to work together on a complex social topic of common interest,” school officials said in a statement released by Langknecht.
Questions about the mascot come at a time when concerns about a lack of appreciation for local Native American heritage and culture have come to the forefront in Turners Falls and as the town is conducting a battleground mapping and study, with an eventual goal of creating a cultural resource center about the battle known as the Falls Fight or Peskeompskut Massacre between Capt. Turner’s militia and native Americans.
Ultimately, Langknecht’s judiciousness may not assuage the strong feelings on both sides of the issue, and it may not do much to dissuade those inclined to accuse school board members of having already made up their minds.
But we’ll take Langknecht at his word and look forward to a fair, open and honest airing of the issue and hope that the ultimate decision will be reached after all the issues and points of view are aired.