A hard no
Athletes at Chief Moses Middle School will eventually need to get new uniforms once a new campus name and mascot are chosen by a district panel. The name change is the result of a state law that requires any government entity such as a school district to seek permission from nearby tribal leaders if they are using Native American terms or names. The Colville Business Council which represents a dozen tribes has given the district a solid “no” response to the question of whether the district can continue to use Indigenous terms such as the Chiefs, Braves and Warriors mascot names used by local …
Courtesy Photo/MLSD
MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake School District has not asked the Business Council overseeing the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation to keep the name of Chief Moses Middle School and will find a new name for the campus as part of the process of finding new mascots for Moses Lake High School and the district’s two middle schools, according to School Board Member Shannon Hintz.
Hintz, speaking to the Columbia Basin Herald after a regular meeting of the Moses Lake School Board on Thursday, said as part of a recent meeting with Colville leaders to review the district’s land acknowledgment statement, the MLSD sought clarification about the CMMS name.
“The letter from the Business Council was clear,” Hintz said. “Nothing related to tribal mascots or names.”
Hintz said the MLSD, the city of Moses Lake, and Big Bend Community College are all working on land acknowledgments — statements that the land they operate on formerly belonged to and was taken from the original inhabitants — with the Colville confederation.
“I made a promise to them two years ago,” Hintz said of an MLSD land acknowledgment, “and I will follow through on that promise.”
At the end of the Thursday meeting, Hintz said residents of the Moses Lake School District have no choice but to accept the loss of the Chiefs as the high school mascot.
Hintz said the district has spent two years working with Colville leaders to find a solution to the district’s use of Native American mascots at Moses Lake High School (the Chiefs), Frontier Middle School (the Warriors) and both the name and the mascot of Chief Moses Middle School (the Braves).
In the end, Hintz said, tribal leaders believe mascots like the district’s do tremendous psychological damage to Native American youth, and so denied the district permission to use those mascots and names under a state law passed in 2021.
“They are taking a hard stand, and this is a hard no,” Hintz said. “It’s a Washington law, and we have to abide by that. There is no other choice.”
A 2021 law that passed the Washington legislature with bipartisan support requires government bodies such as school districts and cities to look for approval from the nearest Indigenous tribe or tribal group to continue using Native American terms and mascots. More than 30 schools were impacted by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The Colville group has opted not to approve continued use of such terms.
“The tribe made the decision and there’s nothing we can do about that,” Hintz said.
Hintz said she understands current and prior students were hurt by the business council’s decision, and that many in the community are mourning the loss of a long-time and deeply held local identity.
“But we will find a new one because we are a resilient people,” Hintz said.
According to Interim Superintendent Carole Meyer, the district has created three, 15-member teams to find new mascots for the high school and the two middle schools. The teams are made up of athletic directors Lauren Sandhop, Clint Scriven, Mark Thompson and Brock Lybbert; school board members Hintz, Paul Hill and Susan Freeman; retired district employees Greg Kittrell and Dave Balcom; and district residents selected from 124 applicants.
MLSD has also submitted an application to OSPI to receive a portion of $6.8 million set aside by the state to help school districts implement name changes. Hintz noted that it’s not only mascots and uniforms, but gymnasium floors, scoreboards and artificial turf at Lions Field that will need to be altered or replaced.
“We submitted the grant application today,” Meyer told board members.
The board also briefly retired to executive session to consider whether or not it should have two or three finalists for the currently vacant position of superintendent. After a short session behind closed doors, board members publicly agreed to go forward with two finalists, who will be publicly interviewed on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The two finalists, announced last week, are North Thursday School District Assistant Superintendent Monty Sabin and Oroville School District Superintendent Jeffrey Hardesty.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.