The New York Department of Education wrote to school districts across the state forcing them to stop using Native American mascots, team names, and logos by the end of the current school year or else they will lose state funding.
Originally issued in 2001, this state directive has been challenged and overlooked. In the Cambridge Central School District north of Albany, it decided to stop using Native American names last year, but reversed this decision just weeks later. Yet, this new memo strictly enforces the fact that if schools don't have approval from local tribes, then they must immediately comply.
This has been a hot topic issue for Native activists across the country not only at the local school level, but also on the national stage with teams like The Washington Commanders (formerly the Redskins). The National Congress of American Indians considers Native mascots to be extremely harmful as over 1,900 schools, to this day, continue to have them.
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