KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Currently, the mascot at Arrowhead Middle School in Kansas City, Kansas, is nameless.
Administrators dropped its former name, the Apaches, after a review by the district deemed it culturally insensitive.
"The Native American community has done a lot and to keep a name like that, it's kind of hurtful," Laurita Burton, whose children attend Arrowhead Middle School said.
The Apache tribe doesn't have any ties to the Kansas City region and school leaders say it purpurates stereotypes of Native Americans.
"We need to listen to one another, if there's something that's insensitive to one, it should be insensitive to me and to all," Edwin Birch, executive director of marketing and communications at KCKPS said.
For Jimmy L. Beason II, a professor at Haskell Indian Nations University, it's an issue he knows all too well.
"We’ve been protesting these mascots since the 1960s," Beason said. "So a lot of people think that it just it's something that just happened, but it's been happening. It's been a conversation that's been addressed for years."
KCKPS began the conversation to look at school mascots last fall and recently decided they'd start with the one at Arrowhead Middle School.
"It's time to change. Like, we can't just say things just because they don't affect us," Sydney Guinn, whose brother attends Arrowhead Middle School said.
"I didn’t even think too much about it. I'm curious on what they're going to come up with," Frank Sawyer, whose granddaughter attends Arrowhead Middle School said.
The district is considering more than a dozen names. They'll to narrow it down to three and get additional community feedback before making a final decision.
"If schools or institutions want to honor native people, they need to really start a dialogue with native people and involve us in their educational curriculum," Beason said.
Others wonder if the school's name associated with Native American imagery should change as well.
"I think they should, because it wouldn't make much sense to keep the name as well as you know discontinuing the mascot name," Burton said.
In a statement to KSHB 41 News, the Kansas City Indian Center wrote:
"We are pleased Arrowhead Middle School in Kansas City, Kansas, is dropping the Apache mascot and are encouraged the local school board recognized the urgent need to drop the mascot, even before it has chosen a new one. The effects of Native American mascots and imagery on ALL youth is detrimental, even if intended to be positive and honoring, and this fact has been researched and documented for many years. It is time for the remaining 1,926 K-12 schools across the nation with Native "themed" mascots to also remove their mascots and branding."
