Blackhawks mascot likely to change

AIRWAY HEIGHTS – Cheney School District Superintendent Rob Roettger and the School Board began preliminary discussions about changing Blackhawks imagery during a meeting last week in the Sunset Elementary School gymnasium.

The possible change is due to a House Bill 1356 that passed last year restricting the use of American Indian mascots and logos without consent of a neighboring tribe.

The Blackhawks mascot honors Sauk tribal member Black Hawk, who fought alongside the British in the War of 1812 against the U.S. He later ignited the Black Hawk War of 1832 because he believed his tribe’s treaty with the U.S. government was unfair and invalid.

When Roettger came to Cheney in 2006, he said the Blackhawk mascot had already been changed to a black-feathered bird.

While Cheney High School switched the actual mascot to a bird years ago, there is still other imagery around the school itself, and on school equipment and merchandise that needs to be changed to meet requirements under the law.

The Cheney Blackhawks still use a logo that depicts Chief Blackhawk and the Capital C-logo with the feathers hanging off the back.

The School District will have to change out all feathered logos and any American Indian imagery, which includes the reader board outside of school and the scoreboard on the football field.

It also includes wrestling mats, gym chairs, gym floors and probably several other “nooks and crannies” that nobody has thought of, yet, Roettger said.

House Bill 1356 does have a few exceptions.

If a school is on or adjacent to an American Indian reservation, it can collaborate with the local tribe to ensure the imagery used represents tribal heritage.

The Cheney School District has reached out to the Spokane Tribe through a formal letter, asking to keep Blackhawk name as long as all of the other tribal imagery is removed.

The tribe consented for the Blackhawk name, as long as the other conditions are met, Roettger said.

However, the Blackhawk name could still present some challenges.

As it currently stands, Blackhawk is one word.

But one of the conditions could force the name into two words, forcing even more physical changes.

There is huge block lettering on the side of the high school and in the auditorium for example that would have to be changed.

The potential changes could cost the district $200,000- $300,000, he said.

While the names have to be officially selected by Jan. 1, 2022, the legislation gives schools a one-year leeway to switch out imagery.

There is a question of who is going to pay for all of the changes.

While the state talked about a $1.6 million fund to help cover the costs and a grant that could be applied for if a new mascot was chosen by Sept. 1, Roettger sees some of the changes being hard to meet if the funding isn’t provided.

He said $1.6 million also seems like a gross underestimate considering there are approximately 32 schools in the state that need to meet these changes and one high school alone could rack up $300,000 worth of cosmetic changes.

Roettger believes the legislation will be hard to enforce without state reimbursement.

Without state funding, more labor-intensive changes like replacing the football scoreboard or repainting the block lettering in the auditorium might not get done by the time the deadline rolls around in 2023.

Cheney isn’t the only Eastern Washington school district struggling with the issue.

Reardan has dropped its Indians mascot in compliance with the law, but the imagery remains in the school gym and on other School District items.

The case is similar in Colville, which has dropped its Indians mascot.

Neither Reardan nor Colville have officially selected a new mascot, yet.

The Kennewick School District, too, is struggling with what to do with the Thunderbirds mascot at its alternative high school.

That district, however, is allowed to keep the Kamiakin High School Braves. The school is named after Chief Kamiakin, a Yakama chief who disagreed with the 1855 Yakama treaty. His refusal to comply started the Yakima War between his tribe and the U.S. government.

One school that has remained unaffected by the law is Wellpinit High School, whose mascot is the Redskins.

The School District is on the Spokane Indian Reservation and the predominately American Indian community has chosen to remain the Redskins.