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Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Spokane Tribe won’t support use of Native-related moniker
REARDAN – The Reardan-Edwall School District will be choosing a new mascot by next school year, the district announced Monday, May 3. The “Indians” mascot was among the Native American monikers banned in House Bill 1356, which was just signed into state law.
The bill offered an exception for schools to use a Native-related mascot if the district is in or borders a county with some or all of a tribal reservation, if said tribe gives permission. However, superintendent Eric Sobotta announced in a Facebook post on the district's page that the Spokane Tribe won’t support public schools using a Native mascot going forward.
“After testifying on the bill to work with the tribe, it did come as a surprise, but I can appreciate the difficult decision that that tribal council is in,” Sobotta later told The Times. “There’s mixed feelings on both sides of this, and that’s a difficult position for them to be in.”
Those mixed feelings extend to the Reardan community, Sobotta added.
“There’s a tradition that people are lamenting,” he said. “But I think there are some that are ready for a change and feel that there should’ve been a change regardless of a bill.”
District leadership plans to keep the mascot through the end of this school year and make the change official in the summer. The cost to change the mascot and logo, including stripping it from various parts of school grounds, is expected to be covered by the state.
Students and community members can submit new mascot ideas to the district via a link on the district Facebook page.
The bill’s exception doesn’t include any possibility of going to the Colville Tribe for permission. Though Lincoln County does border counties with Colville tribal land, the bill specifies school districts must get permission from the nearest federally recognized tribe…in this case, the Spokane Tribe.
Sobotta said going to the Colville Tribe after receiving a “no” from the Spokane Tribe wouldn’t be a consideration even if the bill did allow the loophole.
“Even if it were different, the Spokane Tribe are our neighbors and part of our school community,” he said, noting there aren’t currently any students from the Colville Tribe in the district presently.
The Spokane Tribal Council didn’t return calls for comment by press time.
The bill doesn’t affect the Almira-Coulee-Hartline “Warriors,” to superintendent Jim Evans’ knowledge, despite “Warriors” being one Native moniker named in HB 1356 discussions.
“Our logo is intended to be an ancient Warrior on a horse…not a Native American mascot,” Evans said.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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