The Westhill High School Warriors varsity sports teams boast an impressive display of regional and state championship banners in Syracuse, New York.
But by this time next year, those teams will be rebranded under a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) mandate by the New York State Department of Education. The mandate prohibits districts—under the threat of reduced state aid and the termination of school administrators—from using “indigenous mascots, names, or logos.”
Although Westhill has committed to making the name change, district leaders found the order perplexing—their mascot is a Roman soldier, and the word ‘warrior’ is not specific to Indian tribes.
Regardless, says an April 6, 2023, memo from the New York State Education Department, “the question is not whether the words ‘braves’ or ‘warriors’ are offensive in the abstract, but whether their use is appropriate in school districts that have a history of utilizing stereotypical names and imagery.”
Westhill’s situation is retroactive. Prior to 2002, the Warriors logo found on Westhill football helmets and inside school facilities was an Indian headdress. The district voluntarily replaced that 22 years ago with the Roman soldier.
The name “Warriors,” Westhill Superintendent Steve Dunham wrote in a memo to the district community on May 2, 2023, “has been used to demonstrate the pride, strength, and unity of the Westhill community with no intent to disrespect any culture or group of people.”
Under the provisions outlined by the state education department, Westhill pursued an exemption to the requirement and asked leaders at the nearby Onondaga Indian Nation if they thought the name “Warriors” was acceptable. In a June 8, 2023, letter, Mr. Dunham informed students and parents that the Onondaga Nation did not grant consent, so there was no other choice than to comply with the mandate.
“As a public school, New York State has incredible leverage over us,” he wrote. “As it stands, refusal of compliance to the resolution would constitute a failure on the part of the Westhill Board of Education to uphold their oath of service, I would be in violation of my state license as superintendent, and we would be putting the district in a position to have state funding cut or withheld altogether. The decision to comply with the resolution may not be popular to everyone, but I need to make a decision based on what I believe is in the best interest of our students and school community.”
In the months ahead, Westhill employees, students, and parents will collectively decide either to keep the current logo and change the nickname or change both the logo and nickname.
In March, a survey of Westhill community members offered the following choices for new names and logos: Blue Jays, Blue Hawks, Hawks, Wolf Pack, or Wolves. The logo could also be maintained with either the name Defenders or Guardians, according to the district website.
“We are still working through the process,” Mr. Dunham wrote in a June 6 email response to The Epoch Times. “We will have a change in place by June of 2025 at the latest.”
In Upstate New York, Iroquois tribes—the Tuscarora, Senecas, Cayugas, Onondaga, Senecas, and Mohawks—have federally recognized land or enterprises. And despite the Department of Education mandate, there has been no pressure on the state or local governments to rename municipalities or bodies of water. That list includes the city of Oneida, Oneida County, and Oneida Lake. There are also Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca counties and lakes, the village of Mohawk, and the Mohawk River.
In a June 4 email reply to The Epoch Times, the New York State Department of Education indicated that it has seen “widespread compliance” with the regulation, which requires all mascots, names, or logos connected to “indigenous names and peoples” to be removed by the end of the 2024–2025 academic year.
The agency did not identify the names or number of school districts affected by this mandate, nor did it provide an update on which schools have yet to comply.
The Free Speech Project at Georgetown University’s website notes that at least 55 districts were asked to rebrand themselves. New York became the 21st state to “restrict Native-themed imagery in public schools.”
The Free Speech Project noted that two New York school districts, Schoharie and Mahopac, appealed to keep “Indians” as their mascot, maintaining that their long histories of using the name represent pride and honor, not degradation. But they, too, have since complied with the mandate. According to their respective websites, Schoharie currently uses a “Storm” mascot, and Mahopac is now called the “Wolf Pac.”