Feb 8, 2005 By Al Owens 4 min read

For the purpose of full disclosure, I am the webmaster of a Web site known as Red Raider Nation. I have a vested interest in keeping it that name. Yet in this current flap over the mascot used by Uniontown Area High School, I am a bit conflicted. Also in the interest of full disclosure, both my maternal and paternal grandmothers were descendants of Cherokee Indians.

While I may have never been directly exposed to any of my Cherokee relatives, I still grew up with a certain degree of sensitivity for Native American culture. It is a culture that Hollywood had, until recently, never bothered to get right.

Rent any John Wayne movie and you’ll discover that Native Americans were brave, but blood thirsty. They curiously looked like Italians, but they spoke only in grunts. Of course none of this was true. It was all Hollywood’s shorthand for how those brave white settlers and cavalrymen “won the west” by defeating those simpleminded “savages”.

Mass culture has never been that kind to Native American cultures. Those people, who’ve used the term “politically correct” when discussing this matter, must certainly understand that there are people who can sincerely be hurt by the careless portrayals of entire groups of people. While I’m part Native American, I’m also African-American.

I’ve known my entire life how “political incorrectness” feels. That’s why I would prefer to never engage in it myself.

I’ve also felt a little uneasy about the people I’ve heard who claim that Uniontown’s “tradition” of using a Native American image as a mascot is important. As far as I know. Uniontown Joint Senior High School adopted the mascot in 1938. A writer for the school’s newspaper apparently just used the term in his coverage of a football game and it stuck. That’s nearly a 70-year tradition. I don’t think that’s nearly as long as the traditions that are being defended by those who would like to change that mascot. Try centuries.

All of this may lead you to believe I’d like to change Uniontown’s mascot. I do not. I’m truly more confused by Beverly DeMotte’s (the art teacher who started this whole thing) interest in wanting to change it, than I am in support of her.

For starters, Uniontown’s athletic teams make little use of Native American symbols in their insignias or in their imagery. Mrs.DeMotte’s concerns are that Native American religious traditions are being abused. I can’t see any of those traditions being used at all. In her letter to the Uniontown Area School Board, she mentions “clich? ceremonial costumes, dances and drum cadences”. She must not have been to a Uniontown school event lately. None of that exists.

The opening fanfare for the song Cherokee (Indian Love Song) is used, and if they wanted to use the opening strains of say, “My Girl” by the Temptations I wouldn’t think that was a slap at African American culture. I bring up that song, because it seems I can’t turn on the television these days without hearing it.

If Uniontown High School allows its students to use carelessly animated gestures that reflect a lack of respect for Native American culture, I will certainly stand with Mrs. DeMotte. But this particular protest seems to be a bit curious to me. Especially when you consider that more than a dozen WPIAL other schools, to varying degrees, use Native American mascots and imagery. Will she broaden her protests to include the Penn Hills Indians, Elizabeth-Forward Warriors, Penn Trafford Warriors, Waynesburg Raiders, Aliquippa Quips, Indiana Little Indians, Carrick Raiders, Monaca Indians, Shadyside Academy Indians, West Allegheny Indians, Peters Township Indians, North Hills Indians, Mohawk Warriors too?

Or perhaps will she spend a little more time studying Native American art? If she would, she may learn something I learned some time ago while working in the Western United States. While working as a reporter in Kansas, Arizona and in the State of Washington, I covered arts and entertainment. I saw and reviewed dozens of art exhibits that were crafted by Native Americans artists. Most of whom are rightly proud of the very images that have somehow been called into question here. That is how they see themselves and their ancestors.

For proof, go to Google, type Native American Artwork and then click around. You won’t find tasteless images from the minds of callous Hollywood writers, but those from people who have descended from greatness and are proud of it. If that is their self-image, why can’t we honor it? We are all Americans. Our history belongs to all us.

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Al Owens of Uniontown hosts the Red Raider Nation Web site.