A Fresno man’s recent effort to shine a light on what he says is Fresno High School’s racist mascot has prompted elected officials to open a conversation about the school’s depiction of Native Americans.

Carols Mills, the Fresno Unified School District trustee who represents the Fresno High area, said it was an important debate.

“I feel it would be appropriate, after school begins, to involve students, staff, and Native American elders, especially the (Yokuts), in a discussion on the depiction of the Warrior mascot and what changes should be made.”

Jamie Nelson, a Yokuts Native, created a petition Wednesday to change the school’s mascot. It had more than 600 signatures as of Thursday evening.

“The Yokuts People inhabited the specific land that Fresno High sits on before that land was taken through genocide, systemic racism, and oppression,” the petition says. “The use of generic Native imagery as a mascot has not only caused pain to many Natives in the community, it reinforces archaic and racist ideas about Native Americans as violent savages from a bygone era. Images like this have forced many Natives to live in silent shame, to hide from their beautiful culture, due to a misguided effort to honor our People.”

The petition follows Nelson’s social media post calling on elected officials to change the mascot.

“There are so many options they can pull from that would embrace the community and that wonky clip-art-looking face is not one of them,” Nelson told The Bee. “We need to stop the racist traditions of this Native American imagery.”

Mills said she alerted district staff about the petition and concerns made on social media.

“Board policy does prohibit the use of any ‘racially derogatory’ mascot,” she said in an email to The Bee. “Neither I, nor anyone connected with Fresno High, wish to be disrespectful to any Native American nation or tribe.”

Trustee Veva Islas said she supports changing the mascot to something that isn’t offensive.

“That is where my value would be,” Islas told The Bee. “This does need to be an inclusive process with conversations about the pros and cons.”

However, others, including Fresno Trustee Terry Slatic, said mascot is an “homage” to Native American culture.

“Everyone has the right to their opinion,” Slatic said, “that’s their decision to be offended. Other people, including myself, (see it as) paying honor to a particular part of our culture in this country. That’s how I choose to look at it.”

However, Nelson said, changing Fresno High’s logo is only the first step. The goal would be to make sure no other Fresno Unified school has a mascot that depicts Native American people.

Nelson said growing up in Fresno schools, he never saw anybody who looked like him and remembers his classmates spouting ignorant statements about his heritage, like “go do a rain dance.”

“I went to Tenaya Middle School, which also has Native imagery (on the mascot logo), and that used to affect me as a child,” Nelson said. “Wearing that T-shirt at (gym class) used to really affect me and reinforce the idea that our people are dead. I had massive identity issues.”

Other schools in the central San Joaquin Valley have changed Native American names of mascots in recent years.

In 2016, the Chowchilla Union High School District voted to change the high school’s mascot from “Redskins” to the Tribe to comply with a 2015 state law that bans the use of the word from public school mascots. The school still uses Native American imagery in the logo.

Tulare Union High fought to keep its mascot name “Redskins” when the law first passed, but in 2016, trustees voted 3-2 to also go with the name Tribe. The school also kept Native American imagery in its logo.

Gustine High School also changed its mascot in 2016 from “Redskins” to Reds to comply with the state law. The Gustine Unified School District trustees altered the logo to avoid any Native American imagery.

The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Learn about The Bee’s Education Lab on our website.

This story was originally published June 26, 2020 at 8:42 AM.