SKOWHEGAN, Maine (AP) A Maine school district has voted to “respectfully retire” its “Indians” school mascot and nickname.
The Skowhegan-based School Administrative District 54 Board of Directors voted 14-9 Thursday night to get rid of the nickname for all schools in the district. The nickname has been a point of contention since 2015, when the board voted 11-9 to keep the nickname.
Skowhegan Area High School was the last high school in Maine to use Native American imagery, nicknames or mascots.
Proponents of the nickname had insisted the nickname honors Maine’s Native American tribes, while critics say the name objectifies Native Americans.
According to research by the National Congress of American Indians, nearly two-thirds of some 2,000 references to Native Americans in sports have been eliminated in the last 30 years.
