There are a good amount of people who have written letters to the town and district committee about the mascot an asking for it to be changed. These people are from both indian tribes and just regular townspeople who feel the same way the tribes do. They say it's a constant reminder of how the white man charged into their land and took over the resources and abundance it had to offer. The tribes say their ancestors were not to be discriminated against to be mascots of a high school sports teams. The people on the side to change the mascot that aren’t indians say they find the word “indian” to be a derogatory term.
The people who are for the mascot staying the same and don’t want it to change say that they see it as a tradition for the high school and that it's a way of honoring the tribes and what a big part they were to this town. The committee came together after getting all of the letters from people asking for it to change. So they held a vote on whether or not to change the emblem and mascot. The vote ended up being 11-9 to keep the school’s mascot the Skowhegan Indians. Even after a fair vote, the losing side is still pressing for it to be changed.
A board member asked her child who is now a senior at the school what the kids wanted. And after her child received calls, texts, and emails, saying that they don’t want it changed and that it is a part of who they were was the final information she needed to determine that they we're not going to change the school’s name or mascot either. She said that in the end, she did what the student asked her to do.
When you look at everything that is tied into this, it's clear that we should try to change the emblem and mascot name of Skowhegan area high school. Even though people see leaving it there is a way to keep tradition and is a way of honoring the indians that were there before us, it should be changed because the indians there before us are the ones who don’t want it. If they see it as a discriminating thing and don't want it to be named after them, then the people of Skowhegan should respect that and change it for the ones who don’t want it named after them. So unless the indian tribes left in maine say that it is okay to let the school’s mascot stay the same and that they can remain the Skowhegan Indians, the school should have a meeting to take down the school’s emblem and figure out what their new mascot and emblem should be.