Logo from school website.
The Camanche School Board recently voted 5-1 to retire the school’s “Indians” mascot at the end of this school year.
Meg Schebler, the district’s activities director, says for several decades Native American tribes and associations have been asking institutions to change this kind of imagery.
“It really just came to a point where more and more asks were happening and it couldn’t be avoided as far as the conversation taking place,” she says. “…I think the Camanche School Board and School District did a fantastic job of really doing their research and determining the right move.”
The goal is to have a new mascot in place when school starts in the fall. A committee made up of current students, teachers, coaches and staff, community members and alumni met for the first time last week to start the process.
“A fantastic, diverse set of people who are going to represent the community of Camanche, I think, exceptionally well,” she says, “to kind of whittle down from the list of names that have been recommended and we’re going to go from there.”
This Wednesday is the final day for submitting ideas to the committee. About 90 different nicknames had been submitted by the end of last week. Blue and white will remain the school colors.
According to the website for the city of Camanche, the town was founded by a man from New York who named the city in honor of the Comanche Native American tribe, but he misspelled the tribe’s name.
(By Gary Determan, KROS, Clinton)