Clovis middle school will keep its mascot, the chieftain, after tribe consents
Clark Intermediate School will retain its beloved mascot, the chieftain, with the support of the largest local tribe North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians.
The feeder school to Clovis High was set to change its mascot to comply with a 2024 law, AB 3074, that prohibits K-12 public schools from using the derogatory Native American terms as a school mascot or athletic team name. The law takes effect July 1, 2026.
However, an exception in the law states that if the public school receives a written consent from a local, federally recognized tribe, it may keep the name and the mascot.
Members of the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians brought a consent letter to the Clovis Unified School District at last Friday’s board meeting.
“There are generations of family, community, friends, and tribal citizens that attended Clark Intermediate School and are proud to claim Chieftains as their mascot,” said Fred Beihn, the tribe’s vice chairperson. “We recognize Chieftains to be a prideful term, and Chieftains are noble leaders, and it’s a great day to be a Chieftain.”
Clovis Unified’s Superintendent Corrine Folmer said the district is grateful for the support and the deep conversations in the process with the Native American community.
“Our attempt was always to honor and respect the role that the Native Americans have played in this community,” Folmer said at the Friday meeting. “And we pledge that we will continue to respect and honor and hopefully continue to teach the students all of the values that come with your community of respect, responsibility and community unity, and that the students that attend Clark will graduate with that pride.”
The school was on the verge of officially replacing the mascot. In a report presented to the board in early November, Clovis Unified proposed changing Clark Intermediate’s mascot to Cougar, aligning it with Clovis High School’s mascot.
“We had talked with other tribes. Those were good conversations, productive. No one was opposing the mascot, but they also didn’t lead to an avenue to get an actual authorization letter. So we had moved forward until November when they reached out,” said Kelly Avants, the district’s spokesperson.
Beihn said retaining the names is a way to remember the history.
“Even in the local area, there are some derogatory names that have been changed, but there are quite a few natives out there that feel like even those names should not have been changed, because they are still part of history,” Beihn said. “It still lets everybody know what happened, even if we don’t like the maintenance there. So I agree that there’s a rich history here and a lot of us want to hang on to that.”
