Help Needed! Tell The Maine Senate, We Need LD 944 Because The Locals Are Out Of Control

A die-hard Skowhegan _____ Pride member laying down at the edge of a very busy road on Sunday, April 28, 2019.

As you may know, the school board in Skowhegan -- MSAD 54 -- has been targeted by the mob clinging to their now retired Native mascot and team name. Threats were shouted, specifically at Chair Dixie Ring, at their last meeting when they voted not to hold a referendum on the mascot issue. You can see this disgraceful treatment of the recently re-elected Ring of Canaan in this video.



(If the embedded video doesn't work for you, view it here on Somerset Community TV 11's YouTube channel.)

What you can't see:

* The drunk husband of a school board member who organizes Skowhegan _______ Pride threatening the wife of another school board member as he leaves the meeting (some say, was asked to leave by one of the five -- yes, five -- uniformed Skowhegan police officers on duty that night). It is now considered dangerous to hold a board meeting in Skowhegan without a strong police presence.

* Me peeking out the door to check if it was safe to go to the parking lot, seeing police officers and, as a white person, thinking, Yup, it's ok to walk to my car alone now.

* Another board member -- the one who sounds the most incoherent and angry in the video -- giving the middle finger to a Skowhegan Area High School teacher who favored change and was driving past the area where the S_P group protests on Sunday (see photo of one of them above).

How can you help?

Write to the Democrats in the Maine Senate TODAY.

I expect that they will vote on LD 944, An act to ban Native mascots in all schools, on Tuesday, so time is of the essence!

It will help quell the mob in Skowhegan if this bill, which has already passed the House, is enacted.

Here is a handy web page with a contact form for each Maine senator whose vote we need to pass this legislation:

If you copy and paste your message into each senator's form, it goes rather quickly.

Note that I heard back from Senate Majority Leader Nate Libby in the affirmative when I wrote to him a few weeks ago:

In case you think this is a slam dunk, the Republican senator representing Skowhegan got the vote on the bill delayed last week -- on the thin pretext that it was a day of mourning for Corporal Eugene Cole who was killed by a drug addict in nearby Norridgewock a year ago -- but really so that more arm twisting could ensue.

Please help the MSAD 54 school board, which has done the right thing at last, stand firm in the face of local control that is more like local out-of-control. Civil rights are at stake. Thank you.

The Pen Is A Mighty Change Agent

Among the idealistic beliefs I cling to, sometimes in the face of fierce opposition, is the power of information.

"The pen is mightier than the sword" is something I wanted to believe when I was young, and studying history and current events has strengthened this conviction.

Other ways I've learned of expressing this belief include "You can't kill an idea whose time has come" as well as the proverb of indigenous people of Mexico:



With those thoughts in mind, today I'll share the latest crop of opinion pieces and letters to the editor calling for the retirement of the Skowhegan high school "Indian" mascot/team name.

The first is from The Maine Campus, student newspaper of the University of Maine, Orono. It's a well-researched and well-written op-ed by Liz Theriault. "Maine high schools should consider harmful impacts of Native American Mascots." An excerpt:

No one understands the painful history of a culture more than those whose ancestors endured it. USA Today reported that high schools across the nation started adopting Indian team names around the 1920s and 1930s, the same time that the use of Native language or the practice of Native religion was banned. The Civilization Fund Act of 1819 provided federal funding to boarding schools designed to assimilate Native Americans into white culture. While these egregious acts were being forced upon Natives, and as they were banned from practicing their cultures, students wore feathers, mocked chants and offensively danced on the sidelines of sports games.

I look forward to reading more from Liz Theriault in the years to come!


The next two letters were published today in the Waterville Morning Sentinel and the Kennebec Journal, sister newspapers serving the area that contains the sprawling district MSAD 54.

"Skowhegan's mascot fight is costly" was sent in by Abby Norling, a retired special ed teacher whom I taught with many years ago in Oakland. An excerpt:

With the school budget season upon us, I can’t help but wonder what else $15,000 could buy for students — perhaps new books, science lab equipment, or busing to tournaments? New uniforms have also been suggested, but that’s not a pressing need, since SAHS team uniforms don’t say the team name on them and haven’t for years. 

As a former board member myself, I also worry about potential future legal actions, and what that might cost taxpayers. Prudent management of the district’s scarce resources for education would seem to suggest that retiring the team name soon would be a financially responsible thing, as well as just the right thing to do.

"SAD 54 Board should listen to tribes" by Ernie Hilton brings his perspective as an attorney into play by pointing out which groups are and aren't credible when they claim to speak for Maine's Natives. An excerpt:

...the governing bodies of the four sovereign tribes noted above [Penobscot Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe, Houlton Band of Maliseets and the Micmacs], having as they do the legal right to represent the interests of the larger diaspora of their members, have engaged in a deliberative process and arrived at a conclusion — a conclusion mind you which is based on a great deal of unrefuted scientific evidence that the use of “Indian” symbology, whether termed as a mascot or otherwise, is damaging to their members.  They have appointed official ambassadors to present this request.

Interested parties may want to join us to maintain a presence at the MSAD 54 board meetings.

Alumna Tamarleigh Grenfell at the last board meeting. I particularly like the message on her yellow sign. The acronym SAHS on her pink sign stands for Skowhegan Area High School.

The next meeting is tomorrow, Thursday, February 28 at 7pm in the Skowhegan Area Middle School cafeteria (link to Facebook event with more info here). An item to decide on how to proceed on the mascot issue is on the agenda, but it's very unlikely a vote will occur this week.

If you'd like to share some information or reasoning with the school board directors, a handy copy and paste list of their email addresses can be found here.

Retire The Mascot Because It Costs Too Much To Defend It Is Focus Of Email Campaign

Pretendian Mark "OneWolf" Yancey (right) was invited to a closed meeting by the Skowhegan "Indian Pride" group led by MSAD 54 board member Jennifer Poirier last Sunday, February 24. Somerset Community TV 11, which videotapes and shares many public meetings in their entirety and without comment, was turned away from the event held at a local bowling alley despite presenting press credentials. 

The MSAD 54 school board is weeks behind in their budget process for school year '19-20, and at least $15,000 out of pocket for defending the "Indian" nickname/macot. Once considered fine, it's now 2019 and the mascot has not aged well at all.

In the run up to this Thursday's board meeting and superintendent's agenda item on next steps, many local taxpayers and other concerned parties are waging a letter writing campaign. Here's the one I sent this morning, with a handy copy-and-paste list of board members, central office administrators and their assistants. 

Subject: Costly, aging mascot needs to retire to free up time and $$ for edu

to: dixiering@msad54.org, maryellencharles@msad54.org, markbedard@msad54.org, haroldbigelow@msad54.org, sarahbunker@msad54.org, heidichartrand@msad54.org, jeannieconley@msad54.org, derekellis@msad54.org, haleyfleming@msad54.org, jeanfranklin@msad54.org, gfrench@msad54.org, theresahoward@msad54.org, richardirwin@msad54.org, christyjohnson@msad54.org, desireelibby@msad54.org, peggylovejoy@msad54.org, brandymorgan@msad54.org, jenniferpoirier@msad54.org, lyndaquinn@msad54.org, amyrouse@msad54.org, karensmith@msad54.org, toddsmith@msad54.org, darcysurette@msad54.org cc: bcolbry@msad54.org, tlaporte@msad54.org, jmoody@msad54.org,tfoster@msad54.org Dear MSAD directors and administrators, I was glad to finally see my question to you all about your budget for legal costs and whether or not it has been exceeded answered in the Sentinel article by Rachel Ohm yesterday. Chair Ring had previously responded to my question about the legal costs of the mascot issue with a figure of $15,000 which is close to the amount in Superintendent Colbry's quote to the reporter (i.e. $15,500). Unfortunately, I can't rely on the accuracy of newspaper articles for information about how MSAD 54 conducts the business of public education on behalf of those of us who pay for it e.g. a file photo of me and my husband in the same article misidentified me as Linda Savage. Your mascot has not aged well and is costing local taxpayers far more than anything related to sports teams should. All the time and expense of defending the "Indian" nickname/mascot is mounting with no end in sight. The board should be focused on developing a workable budget for the '19-20 school year right now.  I am sorry to see that you have a board member cozied up to a pretend "Indian" from the Washington DC area who is no such thing. If you want to read more about Mark "OneWolf" Yancey's history with mascots I recommend this article from the sports website Deadspin: "Is the R##skins' VIP Indian Defender a Fake Indian?" https://deadspin.com/is-the-redskins-vip-indian-defender-a-fake-indian-1642991295 Jen Poirier (at right in photo), you are clearly biased and should recuse yourself from any future vote on retiring the mascot. I am glad that you and others from Skowhegan "Indian Pride" have finally dropped your objections to listening to people from away. Institutionalized racism affects everyone who comes in contact with it, and it has a particularly deleterious effect on young people's self-image and aspirations when they identify with the targeted group. Please do the right thing and retire the mascot before any more money or time is wasted on fighting a losing battle. Sincerely, Lisa Savage Solon resident, Skowhegan taxpayer

Skowhegan Elementary Teacher: Many Teachers Want Mascot Retired, But Board Does Not Listen To Us

As the adult child of an alcoholic, I experience stress around listening to excuses. Ironically, for the last 25 years I've worked as a public school teacher and listening to excuses is part of the job. 

This condition of mine made it challenging to go door-to-door in Skowhegan last Sunday. 

My canvassing partner and I listened to several versions of stuff white people say when they are excusing their own failure to show up for racial justice. 

The gist of what they told us went something like this: I am in my [white privilege] comfort zone and I won't do anything that might take me out of that zone. 

Of course no one actually used the words white privilege. Its tremendous power rests on its pervasive yet invisible nature.

The person who articulated it best shared that they only leave online political comments under a disguised name. They gave the example that they are against Trump, but if they had a bumper sticker that was anti-Trump, someone would trash their car. This person also thought the mascot controversy was fairly new and was quite surprised to find that Native people have been requesting that it change since 1990. They characterized the eventual retirement of the "Indian" team name as inevitable, but they weren't sure if it would take another 5 or even 10 years. And they certainly weren't going to help hasten the process even though they freely admitted it would be the right thing to stop being offensive in the 21st century.

I don't see why this is a problem, is what several of the less politically aware folks told canvassers. Many others stated that they were of two minds, that they could see both sides, clearly feeling that this was the perfect excuse not to get involved.

We hope the mascot will have retired by spring, and we await the February 28 school board meeting with interest.

However, if the pretendians are still around come spring, then we'll canvass again. As we did last Sunday, we'll offer information on the local history of Native people, why the American Psychological Association found Native mascots harmful to all students, and copies of lovely posters reminding us that we are on indigenous land.

Summary of Door Notes Sheets

Skowhegan canvass Feb. 10, 2019

TOTAL RESPONSES: 18

FOR CHANGE: 7 (39%)

AGAINST CHANGE: 2 (11%)

NEUTRAL/ SEE BOTH SIDES / IDK: 9 (50%)

1. Support, concerned with how we get there
2. Support, has high school kids
3. Saw both side, no kids
4. Yes!!!
5. Yes!!!
6. Thinks stay same, a middle school kid
7. Didn’t open door, wants to keep mascot, gave public comment
8. Hadn’t heard much, in support of change, not interested in being involved
9. No opinion, no convo
10. 50/50, went to the high school, receptive, took our handouts
11. 50/50, thinks we should educate, we’re doing good work, husband’s school in Sanford changed name. Did not want to sign anything or take papers. Seemed a little defensive/cautious. Doesn’t think mascot was initially meant to upset anyone.
12. Not down to talk
13. Supportive / but attached to name. The longer we spoke the more he was convinced. “If we change this, we’ll have to change more.” Thought mascot was degrading but not name.
14. Sympathetic, not willing to take action.
15. Didn’t know much about the controversy, talked about pride, took historical info & Hope’s essay
16. Haven’t given it much thought, don’t see why the controversy is “so ugly”
17. Did not engage
18. In favor of change, Skowhegan elementary school teacher, said many teachers want change but school board doesn’t listen to staff

I find #18 particularly compelling. MSAD 54 school board directors, are you listening?