FIGHTING INDIANS Documentary: A People Unconquered

Dwayne Tomah speaks in the Passamoquoddy language to the school board: "I'm not feeling honored."
Source: still from video Skowhegan Mascot Public Forum Jan 2019 by Somerset Community TV 11.

Last night we saw the premiere of a documentary about the successful struggle to retire the last "Indian" school mascot in Maine. 

The Maine International Film Festival (MIFF24) presented FIGHTING INDIANS by Skowhegan High School alums Mark Cooley and Derek Ellis as a work-in-progress, but it is pretty nearly finished.

Full disclosure: I watched the film with special interest as I knew it was likely I would appear at some point, and we sat with one of the cinematographers, John Harlow, and his family. His late father Doug Harlow's byline on a newspaper article was one of many poignant images for me. So was seeing my great-niece Leah Savage speaking at a public forum accompanied by her sister Sydalia. Ditto seeing my former student and neighbor Sikwani Dana as a young girl testifying to how hard it is to grow up Native in central Maine.

Source: still from video Skowhegan Mascot Public Forum Jan 2019 by Somerset Community TV 11.

Her sister Maulian Dana and their dad Barry carry the film's narrative, appropriately enough since they led the years long retirement drive. Maulian works as the Ambassador of the Penobscot Nation and Barry is a chief who served the tribe years ago in that capacity. John Bear Mitchell, also Penobscot and a professor at the University of Maine campus built on land ceded by the tribe, was a third strong voice in the film. Dwayne Tomah, a Passamoquoddy language and culture keeper who gifted us with a gathering song as a special treat before the screening, was a rare treat; his appearance in full regalia to speak in Passamoquoddy to the school board in 2019 was riveting and an anchor for the film. 

I know all these people, so I'm not an impartial reviewer.

The filmmakers skillfully built their story from a huge trove of material, and they made the bold decision to include the context of struggles to retire professional sports "Indian" mascots and team names. Also the land theft, massacres, child removal, and tokenization Native people have endured since Columbus raped his way into the "New" World. It's a big topic and maybe the film is a little too long, but not much. For the final edit I'd advise cutting some of the sports journalists' remarks and some of the background material on the Washington DC football team's efforts to buy influence with Native people nationwide.

Strong use of social media posts by the Skowhegan "Indian Pride" group and its supporters told the tale that interviews could not -- because few would agree to be interviewed for the project. Still, we heard from them plenty in videos of school board meetings and public forums. An excellent example was a young woman who claims Native ancestry and who played a drum so ignorantly that it elicited face palms of embarassment for her from the actual Natives in the audience.

Because you can't just paint your face or put feathers in your hair or play a drum and become "Indian" -- and that is the main point of the film. 

In Maine, Wabanaki people -- an umbrella term for the five remaining tribes -- explain that seeing things sacred to their ceremonies being ignorantly misused is painful. Their identity can't be faked; it has to be learned from infancy, through practice, and we see a bit of this in the film.

FIGHTING INDIANS includes my testimony to the school board at a public forum in February, 2019. I had permission from Maulian to read some of the nasty, misogynist, racist slurs and threats against her from comments on social media. She wanted the school board to hear the reality giving lie to the ubiquitous claim that the school mascot "honored" Native people. One of the comments I shared: "We conquered them and can use them however we like."

But the Wabanaki have survived attempted genocide, and are a people unconquered. 

Source: still from video Barry Dana - Wigwam at the Univ. of Maine, Orono

Twelve thousand years of continuous existence in what's now called Maine makes them a people determined to survive in order to honor their ancestors who endured slaughter and child abuse at the hands of the state.

Kudos to Ellis and Cooley. This is an important film, a landmark in Maine history. I had not anticipated how much the audience would laugh during this film about difficult truths, but it seemed appropriate because humor is a strong element in Wabanaki culture. Maybe even a survival strategy?

Appropriately for a theatre full of activists, we were sent home with an action item: call Gov. Janet Mills and urge her to sign legislation honoring the sovereignty of Maine's Native governments. Contact info for the Governor: 207-287-3531 or email using her contact form. 

FIGHTING INDIANS can be seen again tonight (July 11, 2021) at the Skowhegan Drive-in as MIFF24 continues. Tickets are available here. 

Happy Indigenous People's Day And Congrats Skowhegan High School River Hawks

For a long time I taught high school Ancient World Studies beginning with the indigenous presence here in Wabanaki territory that dates back at least 12,000 years. It seemed like a fitting place to start the study of what happened before colonial settler cultures from Europe began their attempted genocide of the Native tribes of the continents that became known as the Americas. 

My school always had some Native students despite false claims by some staff and school board directors who wanted to pretend that we were all white and therefore there was no racism. (You can unpack that argument if you want to.) I began to realize how virulent the white supremacy of northern New England was as I read through old newspaper articles about Native issues and, especially, the comments. Wow those comments. The nastiest of stereotypes about Native people were offered as evidence that they could never exercise sovereignty while ignoring the fact that several tribes were still continuously doing exactly that right here in Maine.

It was good preparation for engaging as an ally in the battle to retire the last school mascot in my state that made derogatory reference to indigenous people. Starting back at least as far as 1999, Native leaders in Maine had been asking Skowhegan High School to retire its pretendian mascot. Revived periodically until 2019, their demand attracted more nastiness, death threats, ugly slurs and overt expressions of racism. Change leader Maulian Dana, ambassador from the Penobscot Nation to the State of Maine, described some of it in a TEDxDirigo talk.

A blog post I wrote conveying my sister Hope's testimony to the school board was one of my most read posts ever -- currently at 8,106 views -- describing how she listened to Native people saying they and their children found pretendian mascots and Halloween costumes degrading. She described other cartoonish figures of racial prejudice that had long since fallen from favor because people listened to the impacted communities. 

Sisters Leah & Sydalia Savage and Natalie Cooke are student athletes who asked their school board to change the team name back in 2019.

Our great-nieces took a stand for changing a team name that had embarrassed student athletes for years. A family project that I know my dad, a former Skowhegan High School athlete whose letter sweater I often wore to school board meetings, would have endorsed.

"Hope Savage, right, gestures as she speaks about Skowhegan Area High School using Indian as the school mascot on Monday. Her sister, Lisa, is at left. The Savages and others are urging the school board to cease using Indian as the school mascot." Source: Waterville Morning Sentinel

After a few years teaching about ancient cultures and their reflection in modern life, I was approached by a former student who is Penobscot and wanted to celebrate Indigenous People's Day on the Monday holiday still known then as Genocidal Maniac Day. She wanted to gather other students for a teach-in and the principal had said she needed a faculty member sponsor. Now a high school teacher herself, she organized her mom who was serving on the school board and her dad Barry, a former chief of the Penobscot Nation, to help as IPD educators. We learned outdoors that day as is the Native way, and took a field trip to a collection of indigenous artifacts collected by a Passamoquoddy tribal member.

Many years later, here we are celebrating IPD as a state along with 14 others. Learning opportunities today in Maine include these featured in the Portland Press Herald's coverage about our newish holiday:

These events are scheduled online to recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day 2020:

• The ACLU of Maine and the Wabanaki Alliance will host a free educational webinar at noon Monday on “The Sovereignty and the Maine Tribes: Where We Are and What Comes Next.” Go to aclumaine.org for more information and to register for a Zoom link.

• The Upstander Project will offer free online screenings from 8 to 10 p.m. Monday of “Dawnland,” a film about the formation of the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission; and “Dear Georgiana,” a film about a Passamaquoddy elder’s journey to understand her removal from her native community at age 2 by child protective services. The event will include a live panel discussion with the filmmaker and question-and-answer period. Go to upstanderproject.org to register.

I was in college in Brunswick when children were being removed from their Native families by the State of Maine. Many were consigned to abusive foster homes and nearly all lost connection with their cultural heritage. As a US history major, why was I not taught about this?

Our education is our own responsibility, ultimately. I've kept listening and learning and today I hope to do the same.

Barry Dana and I at one of many, many board meetings in MSAD #54. The person behind us is a Skowhegan police officer, present because threats of violence against Native people were a consistent theme during the mascot retirement struggle. Photo credit: Jeff Kirlin

Running for the US Senate seat currently held by Susan Collins under Maine's fairly new system of ranked choice voting has been a learning experience second to none. One of my earliest endorsements came from Barry Dana, who wrote:

"Lisa became in my opinion one of the hardest working allies to the Tribes. She continually gave testimony before the board requesting they comply with Tribes' request to drop their offensive mascot, nickname, and imagery. She also presented testimony before the Maine state legislature in our successful effort to create a statewide law prohibiting offensive mascots. Lisa played a huge role in this victory for which I am forever thankful." 

Native American Mascots: Local Control Or Civil Rights Issue? You Be The Judge

The group in Skowhegan still clinging to their now retired mascot/team name has had a rough week, so at least one of them has reached out to people from away for advice. The screenshot above is acknowledgement that the struggle has now moved from the local school board -- which voted March 7 for retirement -- to the Maine legislature.

LD 944, An Act to Ban Native American Mascots in Maine Public Schools, advanced yesterday from the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs to the House of Representatives.

It was amended to explicitly include public universities before the 8-5 vote along party lines to advance the bill with an Ought to pass designation. Rep. Michael Brennan (D-Portland) offered the amendment and also his view that banning Native school mascots is a civil rights issue that supersedes local control.

Penboscot Tribal Ambassador Maulian Dana was on hand for the committee's work session and reported:

Skowhegan Indian Pride was chastised quite publicly and explicitly for their behavior and lack of civility....SIP members were criticized for their behavior at the public hearing not the work session. They were very quiet today.

Some of the lack of civility referenced was reported by a speaker on deck who witnessed the harassment of an MSAD 54 school board director who was at the podium. A SIP supporter passed directly behind him and hissed an obscenity concerning his own mom in a stage whisper.

Barry Dana and daughter Maulian spoke respectfully on the occasions when they addressed the legislature or the MSAD 54 school board about the mascot issue. Barry has written of Wabanaki people, "Being fierce warriors didn't work out so well for us...we've been trying to be diplomats for 500 years."

And then there was the SIPster who identified herself as a tutor at Skowhegan Area Middle School (staff there told me she is not actually an employee but does sometimes work as a substitute). As reported by Maine Public Broadcasting's coverage of the public hearing:

Gloria Gordon of Skowhegan went a step further. A middle school tutor who is white, Gordon said the bill is another example of how Native Americans and other minorities are being given “special treatment.” 

“We’ve been discriminated against just like they have. We’re becoming a minority. Other minority groups that have been considered minorities are getting special treatment right now, not only the Native Americans but the Mexicans."

Meanwhile, back in Skowhegan, SIP disrupted a March 21 meeting in what one person who was present described as "at times, abusive" behavior toward the MSAD 54 school board. You can watch video of the meeting here and judge for yourself.



A SIP group has been showing up during the time we hold a weekly peaceful demonstration against wars and kleptocratic government on the bridge in Skowhegan. Last Sunday they behaved like they were at a school board meeting. This reportedly ruffled feathers in the congregation of the Federated Church on the island by disturbing their church service with prolonged noise.

So it goes. I could share comments on my blog, or other screenshots containing threats of violence (for example, against a woman who has been working with the local Wal-mart to remove merchandise with the now retired mascot). But I think I'll conclude with this one:

Stay classy, SIP. That strategy seem to be working.

Top 10 Reasons Why Maine Should Ban Native Mascots For School Sports

Photo shared by Jeff McCabe on Facebook.

The public hearing for LD 944, An Act to Ban Native Mascots in All Public Schools, is coming up. On Monday, March 25 at 1pm the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee of the 129th Maine legislature is in for quite a show.

Skowhegan "I#$%*& Pride" (SIP) supporters disrupted this week's school board meeting by chanting football cheers to show their displeasure at the board's vote on March 7 to retire the mascot. 

I imagine SIP thinks the Education committee can be swayed by their outpouring of support (they claim to have gathered 4,000 signatures calling for a referendum vote to overturn the school board's decision).

It's a mystery to me why the group waited until after the school board had debated the issue for months and held a vote to start their petition. Maybe they thought the school board vote would go their way, and they were unpleasantly surprised when it did not? The vote was not particularly close on March 7, with 14 voting in favor of change and 9 against; this translates to 558 for change vs. 441 against in the complicated representation scheme and weighted voting system of the Electoral College of school boards.

There was so much harassment and intimidation of board members who voted in 2015 in an unsuccessful attempt at retiring the mascot that several members of the current board kept mum about their views and voting intentions until the night of March 7.

I also received a threat of violence aimed at my weekly peace vigil on the bridge in Skowhegan, posted by Anonymous as a comment on my blog post after the vote:

Read the post and all comments here. A harasser from SIP did show up on the bridge last Sunday during our vigil, but the police chief had sent officers to monitor the situation, and no violence occurred.

Who will testify for change on Monday? Hopefully the ACLU of Maine. Maybe representatives from the governor and her education department, who have already come out in favor of changing the last Native high school mascot in Maine. Definitely Native representatives will be there.

I have to work, but my husband plans to attend and will give a ride to folks that want to get to Augusta but don't have access to a car that day.

I've already sent my written testimony to the Edu committee and received a reply from Rep. Michael Brennan who said he intends to support the bill. Yay! (Email addresses for the committee and text of my letter here). 

For those who have yet to weigh in here are my

Top 10 reasons why Maine should ban Native mascots and team names for school sports:

Screenshot of a sports booster item mocking the fact that Native people's scalps were sought by bounty hunters in colonial times.

1. Educational outcomes are adversely affected by discriminatory practices including stereotyping, mocking cultural customs, and cartoonish depictions of marginalized groups. Studies by psychologists have shown that not only the targeted group suffers; indeed, all students suffer when an educational entity appears to support discrimination.

2. Native parents and other elders have reported for years how painful it is to explain to young children at sporting events why their culture is being mocked. Native people are and historically have been the targets of racism in multiple ways, including having their children kidnapped by state agencies and raised in foster homes where they were punished for speaking their own languages. Native people's practice of their traditional ceremonies was illegal until 1978; encountering mockery of said traditions at a school basketball game is jarring and understandably takes the fun out of showing up and rooting for your team.

Penobscot Ambassador Maulian Dana speaking at school board public forum in Skowhegan on January 8, 2019.

3. The Penobscot Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe, Houlton Band of Maliseets and the Micmacs, Maine's federally recognized sovereign entities, have all sent representatives to request that MSAD 54 in Skowhegan retire their Native mascot/team name. They have expressed that they find it offensive, and that they do not feel honored as SIP claims the name is intended.

4. Schools are maintained by state funding and local tax revenues for the purpose of educating students, not placating alumni who can't seem to move beyond their high school years. Resources in Skowhegan have been diverted for years into debating the now-retired mascot; the board's budget process has fallen behind the usual timeline this spring, because so many meetings have been dominated by this one issue that concerns middle and high school sports teams.

Skowhegan Area Middle School student athlete Carly McCabe testifying to the school board on January 8 (full video of all testimonies is available here via Somerset Community TV 11).

5. Students in the last school district still using a Native team name reported being embarrassed to be called "I#$%^@*" by reporters and announcers at games. They report being reluctant to wear the team t-shirt or spending their own money to order, for example, a batting helmet without the offensive word printed on it. You can see video of their testimony to the school board at a public forum on January 8 here.

6. Skowhegan Area High School's representative to Girls State last summer reported feeling ostracized and embarrassed by her school district's reputation among other teens from around the state. She felt the need to stand up and explain that she is not racist. You can read her letter to the editor "Mascot puts town in bad light" here. Speech team judge and board member Amy Rouse testified to similar experiences at statewide speech tournaments, even though Skowhegan speech teams have not called themselves by a Native name for years now.

Photo by Ben Bulkeley "New mascot pumps up Wiscasset's fans" Wiscasset Newspaper, December 22, 2014.

7. Students in a school with a Native team name are unable to have a fun mascot in costume to perform at games. Schools that have changed found that choosing a new mascot and designing a costume for it to put the fun back into supporting their teams.

8. Horrific bullying -- including threats of violence, gang rape, (unsuccessful) attempts at getting changers in trouble at work, racial slurs and mockery of Native cultural practices -- characterize those who cling to Native team names. For example, on more than one occasion SIP has compared Native people with dogs.

screenshot from the Facebook group Skowhegan "I#$%@* Pride"

screenshot of a Twitter account claiming to represent Republicans in Skowhegan

9. If the bill passes, superintendents will be able to block regressive forces trying to turn back progress by noting that Native mascots are illegal in Maine. School districts can save on legal fees from actions addressing discrimination being brought against them, so superintendents can also argue that following the law is prudent from a financial perspective.

10. MAGA

Screenshot from YouTube video of Native elder Nathan Philips drumming and singing a song of peace while being mocked by students from Covington Catholic High School on a field trip in Washington DC, January 18, 2019.