Massapequa, NY – As a high school hockey player, Adam Drexler wore his Massopequa Chiefs shirt with pride.
But as the member of the Nation Chickasaw grew and learned about his indigenous roots, he came to see the school’s pet, an stereotypical American man who carried a headdress, as problematic.
Now his hometown of Long Island has become the last point of inflammation in the lasting debate about the place of indigenous images in US sports: the Trump administration launched an investigation on Friday about whether New York officials are discriminating against Massopequa threatening to retain funds. The city has refused to comply with a state mandate to withdraw American names and sports pets.
“There was no tribe east of the Mississippi that once had a headdress, never,” said Drexler, 60, who was adopted and raised by a white Jewish family. “How can you argue for a symbol that is not important or relevant here, while affirming that it honors and respects the culture and history of the people that this city bears its name?”
It is difficult to miss the American native images around Massopequa, a coastal village at 40 miles east of Manhattan, where approximately 90% of residents are white.
The Chiefs logo appears prominently on school signs, police and fire department buildings. Students in recent years even painted a colorful mural with the logo and name of the team in a commercial building next to the high school in protest for the change in the pet.
A few minutes by car, next to the city’s post office, a statue of a figure of Native Americans who use touched towers flowing on those that represent a buffalo, a horse and a totem.
“When you think of Massopequa, you think about the Chiefs,” said Forrest Bennett, a second -year student of the 15 -year high school.
A city disagree with state policy
New York has been trying to free the schools of American native pets that date back more than two decades to the administration of Republican governor George Pataki, and in 2022 he gave the districts until the end of the school year to commit to replace them.
Massopequa was one of the four school districts in Long Island that filed a federal demand that challenged the ban, arguing that his choice of equipment and pets names were protected by the first amendment.
The districts could seek exemption from state mandates if they obtained the approval of an American native tribe, but state officials say Massopequa “remained silent” for years.
The Local School Board declined to comment this week, instead of referring to a Friday statement in which they praised the investigation of the Federal Education Agency, which President Donald Trump has moved to dismantle in recent weeks.
Trump, meanwhile, has made frequent visits to Long Island in recent years, since the suburban region has changed Republican. Last spring, Massapequa visited to attend the wake of a New York City Police officer.
“Forcing them to change the name, after all these years, is ridiculous and, in reality, an affront to our great Indian population,” Trump wrote in a recent publication of social networks. Days later he posed with a Massopequa Chiefs sweater at the Oval office. “I don’t see Kansas City bosses changing their name in the short term!”
The NFL bosses have stayed with their name despite the protest of some American native activists. Five years ago, the team prohibited fans from using headdresses or facial paint that refers to American native culture.
Meanwhile, other professional teams, including Washington Redskins (now commanders) and the Cleveland Baseball Indians (now Guardians), have adopted new nicknames and logos.
Residents say that the native American mascot ‘honor’
Throughout the restaurants and stores with Massopequa High, the students and parents insisted that the name of the team and the pet are destined to honor the Massopequa, which were part of the broader Lenape, or people of Delaware that inhabited the forests of the northeast of the United States and Canada for thousands of years before they were ten.
“It’s not that we are trying to do something disrespectful,” said Christina Zabbatino, a mother of two children. “Actually, it would be honored if it were my face, do you know what I mean?”
Lucas Rumberg, a second -year -old student, shrunk the critic that the school logo reflects the traditional attire of a western media and not the attire used by the Lenape people finally forced to move more to the west by colonial settlers and then the US government forces such as the nation expanded.
“Although it is not necessarily how they look here, I feel that it still conveys that we are respectful of the Native Americans,” Rumberg said. “I understand that people could be offended by that, but I feel that it has been here so long that it should stay.”
Native Americans say that the pet is dehumanizing
But that derogatory attitude is precisely why stereotypical pets are offensive, argues Joseph Pierce, director of American and indigenous native studies at Stony Brook University, also in Long Island.
“It is as if this image were a shorthand for each and every one of the Indians,” said the citizen of the Cherokee nation. “And that reduces us to a guy, instead of portraying ourselves as different peoples.”
Indian pets also contribute to the opinion that native peoples are relics of the past, and not the living communities that face urgent threats today, says Joey Fambrini, a member of the Indian tribe of Delaware who works for the Indian Council of New York, a non -profit organization that provides medical attention to the Native Americans.
“This dehumanization is not harmless: it contributes directly to why our struggles are ignored or minimized,” said Brooklyn resident, 29, noting that tribal communities support high rates of poverty, inappropriate housing, lack of clean water and access to limited education, among other challenges.
The cheerful pet also darkens the gloomy legacy of Massopequa’s violence against the Native Americans, says John Kane, a member of the Mohawk tribe of New York in the state of New York that has pushed districts throughout the state for years to change their names and pets.
The city, after all, was the site of a massacre in which dozens of native men, women and children were killed by Europeans in the seventeenth century, he said.
“They are not trying to honor us. That is why the precision of the logo doesn’t care,” Kane said. “So, the idea that this is a kind of honor for us? I mean, let’s go. Is it an absurd proposal to even suggest.”
