Newly elected pro-Native American school board reclaims indigenous mascot, stands down cancel culture

A Pennsylvania group reclaimed its native Indigenous historical past and a school’s in style tribesman mascot final week, only a month after 5 new school committee members received elections and ran on pro-Native American platforms. 

The Southern York County School District (SYCSD) school board voted 7-2 on Thursday to permit Susquehannock High School to deliver again its conventional Warriors emblem. 

“This vote was the Lexington & Concord moment in the effort to defeat cancel culture,” Native American activist and historian Andre Billeaudeuax instructed Fox News Digital, after lobbying on behalf of the normal picture that pays homage to the Indigenous Susquehannock individuals. 

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All seven votes in favor of the emblem got here from members who have been elected since a earlier board voted to take away the emblem again in 2021. 

“The SYCSD school board stands as a role model and blueprint for other communities fighting for their Native names and imagery,” the North Dakota-based Native American Guardians Association (NAGA) stated in an announcement, after it offered its case final week on the board assembly.

From left, Joe Wilson, Bill Hall, Jennifer Henkel, Jeremy Nash and Nathan Henkel have been all elected to the Southern York County (Penn.) School District school board in Nov. 2023 — operating on pro-Native American platforms. They voted in January 2024 to reclaim a neighborhood excessive school’s Native American emblem and mascot. (Courtesy Jennifer Henkel)

Five of the newcomers have been elected in November after the sudden elimination of the favored picture in 2021 — and an effort to rewrite the area’s Native American historical past — spurred group anger and motion. 

“This movement was about erasing Native American culture and I wasn’t about to stand for it,” Jennifer Henkel, a mom of three youngsters and one of many new school board members, instructed Fox News Digital. 

“The SYCSD school board stands as a role model and blueprint for other communities fighting for their Native names and imagery.”

She and the opposite 4 new school board members, together with her husband, Nathan Henkel, had by no means earlier than run for elected workplace, she stated. 

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Their arrival, nevertheless, is outwardly not welcome by everybody locally.

“They came into their new positions with bravado to push their personal agendas, and not with humility to learn their jobs,” wrote Deborah Kalina, a former member of the school board, in a latest visitor editorial that appeared within the York Daily Record.

The 5 people on the left received election to the Southern York County (Penn.) School District school board in Nov. 2023. On the best, the Warriors mascot at Susquehannock High School. (Courtesy Jennifer Henkel)

“To put the mascot away is respect for the past, for the present and for the future,” Katy Isennock, recognized as a school alumna, mom and Native American, additionally instructed the identical native outlet after the vote final week.  

Moved by cancel-culture effort

Henkel stated she was moved to political motion by the adverse impression on the group of the COVID-19 lockdowns and school closures — and by a cancel-culture effort to rewrite native historical past to stir public sentiment in opposition to the Warriors picture. 

The outrage as a substitute fueled the group’s effort to save lots of its native historical past.

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“Current research findings demonstrate that there is no evidence that the Susquehannock Indians lived in or around the municipalities that comprise the Southern York County School District,” the board’s variety committee wrote in a 2021 research. 

Yet that variety committee report seems to battle with centuries of recognized native historical past. European explorers wrote concerning the Susquehannock individuals who lived alongside the Susquehanna River as early as 1608, whereas historians consider they lived within the space centuries earlier. 

Native American activist and historian Andre Billeaudeaux is the creator of the e-book “How the Redskins Got Their Name.” He has lobbied on behalf of the normal picture that pays homage to the Indigenous Susquehannock individuals.  (Courtesy Andre Billeaudeaux)

Susquehannock “communities were located along the Susquehanna (River), especially in Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster and York counties,” experiences the web site of the Susquehanna National Heritage Area, citing a number of historic sources.

The Native peoples, the web site additionally stated, “lived in large fortified towns, the largest of which may have had a population of nearly 3,000 people.”

“This movement was about erasing Native American culture and I wasn’t about to stand for it.”

The variety report apparently relied closely on data offered by the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) to stoke opposition to the Susquehannock Warriors mascot. The highly effective Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group is supported by taxpayer {dollars} and by left-wing activist teams. 

It’s the identical group that led efforts to encourage the NFL’s Washington, D.C. franchise — now the Commanders — to alter its identify from the Redskins, whereas additionally focusing on lots of of different sports-team photographs across the nation.

Photo circa Eighties: Combs constituted of deer antlers by Susquehannock Indians.  (MPI/Getty Images)

The NCAI “receives grants from left-wing foundations like the Ford Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, reports InfluenceWatch.org. 

The NCAI, a major Native American rights organization, has taken a strong stance against the use of Native American imagery. 

The NCAI “has tracked the retirement of greater than 200 unsanctioned Native ‘themed’ mascots since 2019, and has supported laws banning using these mascots in a number of states,” the group said in a statement to Fox News Digital in Sept. 2023.

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Fox News Digital reached out to the group for comment regarding the Pennsylvania school district news.

A report the NCAI issued in 2010 included a lengthy history of the Redskins franchise, but did not mention the two influential Native Americans who inspired the organization’s name and imagery. 

Blackfoot chief John Two Guns White Calf is shown at left — he served as inspiration for the Washington Redskins logo (right), which represented the NFL franchise on the field from 1972 to 2020. The franchise’s original logo from its founding in 1932 was inspired by Lenni Lenape chief Tammany, dubbed “The Patron Saint of America” by the Founding Fathers and the generation that fought the American Revolution.  (Getty Images)

One was Lenni Lenape chief King Tammany, who was dubbed the “Patron Saint of America” for his role in motivating colonial troops in the American Revolution; and the other was Blackfoot chief John Two Guns White Calf, whose face appeared on the side of Redskins helmets for 48 years.

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“It took plenty of bravery for individuals in York County to face up and battle again in opposition to the agenda, like David in opposition to Goliath, and the distinction they made is unbelievable,” stated Billeaudeaux.

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