Equality and Diversity Sub-Committee Meeting, March 22, 2022

001[Music] oh good evening everyone i'd like to call the march 22nd meeting of the dartmouth school committee to order um please rise for the pledge of allegiance we have a flag over here i pledge allegiance to the fly of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all dr gifford can you do a roll call for us please sure kathleen amarill chris oliver here john nunes yep dr jenkins here mary wait here i'll just note that miss amarelle couldn't be with us this evening because she's ill so she's watching uh via live stream so she will hear all of the comments that are made this evening before we get started on the one item on our agenda which is public

002comment on the matter of the dartmouth logo i'd like to talk a little bit about our format for the evening we're going to start with two opening statements we have one statement from each side we have i see mr pereira mr ventura here who are going to start with opening statements in favor of keeping the dartmouth logo and then dr hall is here and he will start with an opening statement in favor in opposition to keeping the logo um they may have fellow speakers here i'm not sure i don't see everyone in the audience it's hard to see from up here i will just ask them to introduce anyone else who's speaking with them each side will have 10 to 15 minutes to sort of make their opening arguments and make the argument for each

003side for the public that is watching us and then we will move on to public comment from the audience we ask that each person who would like to make a comment please state their name and their town of residence we will alternate sides on the microphone back and forth so we'll go back and forth so you can line up on either microphone which are up here between the back and the front of the auditorium you'll see on our left here we have a timer set up we are generally speaking asking people to keep their comments to about two to three minutes so that everyone in the audience has the ability to share their thoughts this evening the timer will roll down at two o'clock to two minutes that is not a hard stop that's just

004a sign for you if you're up here to to get about wrapping up your thoughts at about three minutes we'll say something um to sort of remind you because our goal is to hear from as many people as possible this evening um we've set aside until 8 30 this evening to hear public comments um at 8 30 i will entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting and we will be finished for the evening the only other rule that i ask for this evening is that we be respectful to each other everyone is here because they love the town of dartmouth and they're here because they believe in this town we all have differing opinions on this in fact this committee is divided on this issue it's fair to say but we all respect one another

005and our right to have those opinions and i asked the audience members to show the same respect to their fellow community members when they're making their comments with that i will invite mr pereira and mr ventura up to the microphone i don't know if mr carney's here sorry if he is here he's welcome to come up as well sorry i didn't see you there i would ask you to come up to the microphone it's hard to see into the back it's very dark back there so um they're going to start and they're going to have about like i said 10 to 15 minutes to make some opening statements so i see mr pereira first please take it away thank you uh good evening everyone chris pereira dartmouth a former school committee member today i stand

006proudly with the dartmouth wampanoags all natives and the overwhelming majority of dartmouth residents who support the dartmouth indians logo including teachers administrators coaches current students and alumni to those seeking to cancel the dartmouth indians while we disagree strongly we respect your opinion even as we are steadfast confident and unwavering in ours the respectful beautiful unifying dartmouth indians logo and iteration of which was authored by clyde andrews federally recognized wampanoag tribe member and dartmouth high school hall of famer is a unifying symbol playing homage to native americans key facts about the logo include that it is just that a logo a symbol not a mascot there is no pat patriot wally the green monster or arnie the courtier the name indians is the federal term used by the u.s government as it relates to american indian

007tribes and members it is also the universal term used by native tribes themselves across the nation hence the federal bureau of indian affairs additionally every dartmouth wampanoag has signed a letter that was shared with the school committee and the now twice dissolved subcommittee in the letter they emphatically state their support for the logo no tribe has come out against the dartmouth indians logo in fact the only tribes to formally go on record support the logo and interestingly in last june the dartmouth high school spectrum school newspaper conducted a survey of students teachers and residents and found that 77 percent support the logo and only 13 are against it with the remainder being undecided at the end of the day this is about dartmouth and it's up to the dartmouth wampanoags dartmouth residents and school committee

008not outsiders most of the opponents speaking in opposition to the logo are not from dartmouth didn't go to dartmouth schools or they have ties to academia especially umass dartmouth curiously desperately a few have turned this into a personal political issue sadly deflecting time resources and effort away from children and tribes that is the most important fact of all because you see as the school committee and their creation of the subcommittee has focused on this topic for three years our children have suffered time is finite there's only so many hours in a day time spent on trying to cancel a logo that people love and honor is time not spent on children and education the last two years have been trying for students parents and teachers during covet depression anxiety stress suicide attempts are all up

009while test scores are either flat or declining teenage girl suicides are up 50 percent unbelievably the school committee chair continued to push the cancellation of the logo even during the height of coven in the summer of 2020 chairwoman jenkins publicly tweeted they're mad that i pointed out our mascot is racist it's a lot easier to laugh out loud when racists are mad at you what a disgusting false and evil attack on the people of this town at a recent school committee meeting a parent talked about how their child had to be seen at a crisis center a friend of mine's daughters has been suicidal because of covert he confided in me i'm losing my daughter and yet for three years we've had time to talk about a logo that people love but not one subcommittee

010was created to look at these real problems and not one public forum on these real problems there must be a reckoning there must be an accountability for what has happened thankfully there are significant tools at the disposal of dartmouth residents if the will of the people is ignored they include peaceful protests recalls of school committee members and contested elections for the next several cycles but wouldn't it be nice to build up rather than tear down in a race understand educate and honor rather than cancel let us unite around a symbol that has united generations of dartmouth students athletes teachers alumni and dartmouth residents we respectfully and emphatically urge the school committee to do the right thing follow the will of the people and the dartmouth wampanoags it is long past time to reaffirm the dartmouth

011indians enhance educational curriculum focus on the important priorities for our students and parents and move on with our lives the love of the dartmouth indians will triumph over hate love wins madam chair love wins thank you all god bless [Applause] to start i'd like to briefly just summarize a few points and reiterate i'm sorry mr carney can you introduce yourself to those who might not know you thank you uh my name is sean carney i'm a proud member of the aquino wampanoag tribe um and i'm here today today to speak in favor of keeping the dartmouth indian logo as i said i would like to just reiterate a few points that i've made both in public forums and other mediums when we look at the dartmouth indian as compared to similar movements we've seen throughout

012our country similar to washington or cleveland we are able to draw very distinct lines between what was authored in those cities and what's authored in dartmouth in washington you had a derogatory name on its face in cleveland you had a very caricatured portrayal of a of a plains indian but in dartmouth here we aren't using an offensive name now as uh chris had correctly pointed out pointed out native american peoples will diverge on this subject however the word indian is codified in our constitution it's codified in the united states code it has agencies and federally recognized tribes utilizing that verbiage in that nomenclature so onto space i think we'd be hard-pressed to say the word indian is offensive secondly the logo here is tastefully done we don't have a caricatured depiction we have a historically

013accurate representation of what eastern woodlands indians looked like prior to settle satellite settling by colonizers the other things we'd like to address here is that the indian here is used very respectfully you don't see it at the 50-yard line where it can get stepped on nor do you see it at half court you'll see it in the rafters you'll see it in display cases and you'll see it on the football helmets every single place you see it has a place of reverence it's not overused it's not plastered around town it is used only to honor and revere the sporting event the musical event or whatever extracurricular is happening at the time furthermore when you're at the dartmouth sporting events you don't see someone dressed up as a as an american indian doing flips on the

014field or twirls in the basketball court you don't hear war cries we've heard these horror stories of things and people using these logos and doing things that are quite offensive to american and american indigenous people but none of those things are happening here in dartmouth this is a uniquely dartmouth issue we don't have a broken system here we don't have a broken logo and i can't see a reason to fix it there's nothing to be fixed and i'll agree with some things that people have said the logo on itself is not a solution to educating our children on what indigenous culture was but i'd say if you're looking to change something look towards the curriculum make some deliberate changes that will focus on indigenous people that were here prior to the rest of us i

015would also say that it would be a great idea to look at forming deliberate partnerships with our neighboring tribes the tribes in aquina mashpee etc that can aid this curriculum and help bring a better look and a better eye on to what we're teaching our students and make sure that we're teaching our students exactly what that logo represents and why it is to be honored and respected lastly i would say that we've heard only one testimony or anecdote about the logo being treated disrespectfully out of i don't know how many people that have come up and speak from the public via facebook etc and other mediums i would say though that we have plenty of stories as you'll probably hear today of how that logo was used respectfully of how it brought honor of how

016it brought strength i think you could tell from any dartmouth high school athlete or any student here when you put on your jersey or when you put on your helmet or when you're wearing that indian you need to be held to a higher standard and you will treat others with respect you will lose with dignity and you will win with grace thank you for your time [Applause] jacob ventura dartmouth precinct six and i apologize for any overlap between the prior two speakers um former finance committee member here in town former town meeting member dartmouth high school class of 2005 and member of the wampanoag tribe of gay ed aquina and it's good to be back in this room uh when i graduated in 2005 i was the drum major of the marching band led the

017band on that very stage wore the patch uh the indian patch on our chest and was very proud of that first we need to correct the record about what has been said by some in town and reported in the media to date not a single tribal government as formally stated they are in favor of erasing the dartmouth indian not a single one in fact chiefs of the picassot and chappaquiddick tribes submitted written opposition to erasing the dartmouth indian symbol additionally every single wampanoag aquina member and resident in dartmouth is unanimous in our support for maintaining the name and symbol we're absolutely unanimous the mashbee chairman even voiced the willingness to work with the school department on education initiatives if the town decides to keep the logo the common takeaway from my conversations with all of

018these tribes was that indian country has far bigger issues to be dealing with than this murdered and missing women land trust gaming recognition status sovereignty rights education housing health care the infrastructure transportation senior citizens employment food access environmental and property rights just to name a few the issue here in dartmouth created by non-tribal members has been distracting to indian country and it's negatively diverting our time attention and resources away from the much larger issues that our people currently face i first became involved in this issue on october 28 2019 that's now spanning four calendar years nearly three years ago i wrote a letter to this school committee uh with the exception of miss waite who was not elected at the time and i urged the school committee to review the 2014 u.s patented trademark office

019decision pertaining to the washington redskins and sean uh mentioned this previously in that case the trademark office adopted precedent from the u s court of appeals for the district of columbia and applied what is known as the disparaging factor test when reviewing trademarks now while dartmouth's indian symbol isn't trademarked we can still use that disparaging factor test as some guidance the test is as follows whether the word the what whether the word marker image in question was of a disparaging nature at the time it was established not whether it would appear to be disparaging today in other words was the word marker image disparaging at the time it was established after years of compiled data cultural references census records treaties compacts tribal and non-tribal polling and interviews in literature various forms of media at the

020time the court determined that the word mark was of a disparaging nature when it was introduced in 1932. in boston before they moved to washington in my view the dartmouth indian would fail to meet this disparaging factor test first the term indian has been codified by the u.s constitution as you've previously heard and it is the federally recognized term used for american indians and recognizing tribal sovereignty rights well prior to dartmouth adopting the indian as its symbol the term indian is also the universally accepted term of federally recognized drives in their sovereign government-to-government relationship with the united states when dartmouth adopted the indians sometime in the 60s the term indian in no way would have risen to any level that of as a matter of fact indian was the second least offensive term in indian

021country when they were polling during this very case out of hundreds of references the only uh term that was least offensive to indian was native american furthermore even applying the standard and present day the term indian is still federally recognized the bureau of indian affairs the national museum of the american indian at the smithsonian the national congress of american indians just to name a few finally an iteration of the dartmouth symbol was specifically designed by a fellow tribal member mr clyde andrews as a way to honor his people in our shared history i implore individuals on this uh school committee to do your due diligence before making any decisions and research that disparaging factor test i do believe it's informative i believe any reasonable person who reads this test that the court set out would

022come to the same conclusion that i did that the dartmouth indians would not remotely meet that disparaging fact of death as described finally in my october 2019 letter i encourage the school committee to explore entering into a formal partnership with the wampanoag aquina so we would formulate enhanced educational and cultural opportunities for our students and town residents i wrote that we should embrace a partnership similar to florida state university and the seminole tribe where university officials and tribal leaders have collaborated on a number of initiatives while tribe the tribe allows the university to maintain its native imagery and name is in that spirit of compromise and collaboration that i'm hopeful that we'll be able to work to bring some consensus on this school committee uh following the april 5th referendum and let me close by

023describing the tremendous opportunity i believe we have as a town and tribal nations with this situation we have the ability to provide a great model for not only our region and state but for the entire nation on how sovereign tribal nations and municipalities can work together to preserve our history and our imagery i believe there are several national implications based on what we do here in dartmouth in the coming weeks we have an opportunity to establish a new national model for tribes and municipalities to decide what is best for their individual circumstances versus a national one-size-fits-all cookie-cutter all-out ban of all indian references let us as a community resist the urge to cancel everything we might personally disagree with let us also resist the urge to let non-tribal people tell tribal people what is and

024isn't defensive to us let us instead work at building consensus and embrace our shared history the good the bad and the ugly move forward to strengthen the bonds between our town and our rich tribal cultures in history this could be a learning moment for the entire nation and i'll close with that with what i envisioned here in dartmouth as a compromise back in 2019 and what i continue to maintain uh three years later four points number one a formal partnership with the tribe that aims to educate our current students and visiting students about the special relationship the town of dartmouth has with the indian symbol we must educate people that we don't have a mascot but a proud symbol designed by one of our own number two a review of the consequences and penalties related

025to the student handbook code of conduct and athletic policies pertaining to anti-bullying and stereotype measures as it relates to the indian name and symbol i think that's something we can all agree on in this room this can be used as a learning moment to teach those who aren't familiar with our relationship with the symbol what our respect what respect and honor is all about that means no tomahawk chops whooping chanting or other racial slurs tolerated by our students faculty parents or any visiting students or schools whether in dartmouth or out of town scholastic events number three reviewing opportunities to enhance our curriculum as it relates to local indigenous history taught in our schools this could include annual assemblies with visiting tribes educating our students and the public about tribal culture languages food music and art

026as well as our shared history could also include the placement of permanent plaques at every dartmouth school including at the dartmouth memorial stadium that would showcase the special relationship that our town has with its tribal partners this partnership could include a formal ceremony mr ventura may i ask you to please wrap it up we're at 18 minutes now thank you this partnership could include a formal ceremony at a football and basketball halftime show that includes tribal representatives and school administration and finally number four it means maintaining our beautiful dartmouth indian name and symbol a symbol that is not only respected in dartmouth but across the state and nation we must do everything in our power to show the world that the dartmouth indian is more than just a symbol it's an icon as miss edith

027andrews our tribal elder uh previously stated a few weeks ago it can serve to educate people from dartmouth and people outside of dartmouth what it means to be a dartmouth indian what it means to have dartmouth pride and what it means to the town of dartmouth that honors its uh history and its indian symbol we have a remarkable opportunity to build that consensus and i'm hopeful that the school committee will finally reaffirm the dartmouth indian following the april 5th referendum thank you thank you now i will ask dr lisa hall dartmouth resident president of the naacp of new bedford to to invite introduce himself and invite anyone else who will be sharing his time thank you dr jenkins again i'm dr lisa hall priebus darwin president current employee of umass dartmouth i will make my

028opening remarks brief as there are several allies here who will be speaking after me good evening it is always important to first acknowledge and proclaim that we stand here on native and indigenous land as i said earlier i am dr lisa i am president of the national association for the advancement of colored people commonly referred to as the naacp in short the mission of the naacp is to eliminate racism hatred bigotry discrimination wherever it is present i have lived in dartmouth since 2015. and i've worked at the university of massachusetts dartmouth as a student affairs professional moreover the naacp has served the new bedford dartmouth and greater bristol county since december 10 of 1917. the naacp has been here for over 100 years for over 100 years we have been present vigilant and advocating for

029justice some deem our organization as an outsider group but martin luther king made it very clear anyone who lives in the united states can never be considered an outsider in august of 2019 the naacp and two other dartmouth residents met with members of the school committee during the summer recess and asked them to hold a public hearing on the mascot a vote the next month denied that request only one school committee member still serving voted for such a hearing and she has now become the target of vicious personal attacks similar to myself two weeks ago in this very building you heard from various native and indigenous members about the harmful impact of the dartmouth indian and similar symbols people like don blake souza a mashpee elder brian berhard whedon mastery chairman shauna newcomb of mashpee

030megan running dear paige upper cassette brad lopes of the aquina and john lupier president the board of directors of north american indian center of boston heard the pain the harm that logos and mascots have done to indigenous people tonight members of the naacp and supporting organizations we stand as allies friends comrades and truth tellers of those individuals who bravely spoke against the mascot two weeks ago i want to be perfectly clear our goal tonight is twofold similar to our friends across the way we seek for the dartmouth school committee to implement a robust school curriculum for k-12 that will introduce indigenous history culture and contributions as well as provide for programs that will address the current context of indigenous nations so it's very clear to me that we actually agree so it'll be simple to

031come to some conclusion on that second we call for the select board of dartmouth to create a task force that will address the erasure of indigenous contributions here in dartmouth it was clear hearing from the elders of the aquino two weeks ago that the real issue here is erasure our goal tonight by asking the school committee to retire the mascot is not to erase the enormous contributions of the aquina nor any other tribe in the wampanoag nation but to call for all native communities to be heard valued and honored colonial conquest genocide slavery land theft and the indian schools were all used to try to erase indigenous people from this land but they are still here like the equina who lived ten thousand years ago on the island of nope or today martha's vineyard many

032new england tribes were forcibly relocated and ended up in exile to become people of a diaspora for this reason dartmouth must consider the views of all indigenous people of southeast massachusetts the equinox are a single tribe of the nation but all tribes and nations of the wapanoik should be involved in the determination of the mascot's fate and building curriculum on this area's original people just as members of the wampanoag ended up in dartmouth and st david's island in barbados other tribes with roots as deep as mr carney's should have their views respected and heard we are disappointed that this issue will end with the referendum two weeks from today constitutional guarantees like the bill of rights were written so that the majority as it sometimes does will not oppress a minority this like human rights

033is a moral issue and should never be settled by a vote but it was considered dartmouth's residents and the naacp who launched this effort to reconsider the mascot this occurred in the context of a wider reevaluation of the misuse of native american imagery preceding us was a state resolution to change the flag and seal and state legislation to ban indigenous mascots we are all part of thousands of national and state efforts focused on addressing festering racial injustices that has been the work of the naacp since 1909 and our work is far from done we must continue with racial progress and oppose those who wish to stop it you will hear from people who disagree with us but it's very simple we are here because injustice is here it is important to know there are that

034there are almost one dozen massachusetts tribes and native rights organizations who are opposed to the mascot you will hear from people who have a battle cry of defend dartmouth our cry is simple defend people you will hear from people that say retired the mascot is about erasing history i can assure you it is not the solution is education and working with indigenous communities for forward progress and mutual prosperity a robust curriculum and a devoted and dedicated task force of town people and indigenous voices can make that happen the art of history is long but i promise you it been towards justice my people would know this wise observation has always been true the dartmouth mascot may survive a referendum and even a school committee vote but inevitably it will be replaced america is moving forward

035it is changing and change is inevitable thank you i will now call on elizabeth murphy for the remainder of my time thank you not scary we're good my name is elizabeth cavanaugh murphy i'm a dartmouth resident graduate of dartmouth high school and dartmouth college and the parent of two current high school students the results of the march 8th meeting were clear we do need to focus on education about local indigenous contemporary cultures and their unique histories native americans from across this region have urged us to educate ourselves to understand the harm we cause those with strong ties to dartmouth requested a focus on education to avoid erasure of their people and their culture we must do both this is the only way forward i fully support robust k to 12 curriculum additions in native american

036studies i believe an official town in tribal community collaboration could be a strong resource please prioritize both public school educators must teach and advocate on behalf of all students not just the loudest harshest voices in the room that is not an easy task but it is the job upholding dartmouth public schools mission of quality learning for all is a lovely aspiration and we must work for it to become a reality we must honor and respect the dartmouth logo mr andrews and his culture we must also reduce further harm and misguided forced pride even with stronger guidelines and some restrictions on the use of the image individual students and alumni and townspeople can always wear that logo with pride but doing show should always be a personal choice never a condition of team membership please as

037educational leaders think of the child who may be shrinking in their seat in the corner of the classroom the child whose parents don't have the loudest voices who haven't lived here for generations who may themselves feel intimidated and alienated we may not know this child or any student's full story but they are all worthy of love respect and inclusive educational experience in this town please be a voice of reason and a voice of compassion for that child in the corner and for all dartmouth students thank you thank you um dr hall you have approximately four to five minutes left are you finished if i have five minute loud i'd like to call one more speaker giving equal time you may okay i appreciate that and pops ms fox please introduce yourself in your town of

038residence and you have approximately four minutes left i'm ann fox a resident of the town of dartmouth and i'm also a member of the naacp recently i came across the writings of the reverend william apes he was the a pequot indian he was adopted by the mashpee wampanoag in 1833 so that he could legally help aim the amos and attaquin families regain their tribal lands and their right to call their own clergy in barnstaple county these families were leaders of the mashpee at that time and perhaps these families still exist you would be surprised to read how non-indian whites used indian forest land as if it were their own and they did it in full view of tribe members in fact they would chop down the trees and cut up the wood and then they

039would start loading that wood onto their wagons the wampanoags would then go unload that's what they had to do and that that would continue until one of them was tired two weeks ago i listened to the eloquent statements of native american leaders at this committee's meeting i was deeply impressed at the pride they have in reclaiming who they are after generations of others making believe that they were no longer a people and were instead the first inhabitants of this very land upon which we all now stand and i heard too the statement of the aquino wampanoag who spoke in favor of keeping dartmouth high school's mascot but we must hear the voices of all of these people and we must feel it too it is my hope that in this 21st century we will recognize

040the subtle ways that racism and prejudice continue even in seemingly innocuous use of a mascot instead i advise we choose another mascot and name and name and retire this one maybe we could choose something like the dartmouth dragons how about that we should retire this mascot the current one into a wonderful school curriculum such as the town of mashbi has created and then the mascot becomes part of our history it is time to do this it is overdue to do this thank you we'll now open it up for public comment and i'd like to remind our audience members of our rules um please state your name in your town of residence before you speak we have timers you will have approximately two minutes we will alternate between microphones so please queue up right so we're

041not having open microphones and waiting at two minutes that's just a signal to wrap it up i will remind you at three minutes to go ahead and finish your thoughts so that should help you give you cues um so we're going to start with this microphone over here that's my left audience right please go ahead sir hello my name is clyde andrews graduate 1974 designer of the reiteration of this logo image not a mascot as it is used today me myself this was done through my heart way back 48 years ago everybody keeps calling it a mascot it is not it's an image and a logo with pride spirits and homage and everybody keeps calling it a logo it is not it's not a mess it's a logo it's not a mascot we don't have

042anybody running around with it it's in pristine places people look up to her and when i went to school where it's now the john quinn middle school all i said was the logo the image and pride and that's all i have to say i like to see it stay it was 40 years ago when i did that reiteration of that design and it stayed here for 48 years almost half a century thank you thank you mr andrews to our next microphone over here hello my name is alyssa lopes um i am a member of the mashfi wampanoag tribe i am also an educator and i am also the director of communications for a non-profit in new bedford i don't have a lot to say but what i will say tonight is ann fox said racism

043exists in subtle ways and to hear people right people that i see as elders okay even if they're not tribal members they are elders say that they're going to throw up when dr lasalle is speaking is how racism exists in subtle ways i think it's time for everyone in this room to accept that racism does exist also katapatash thank you to everyone who is speaking on the side of eliminating something that's very hurtful thank you we'll go to the microphone over here next our next speaker [Applause] 50-year resident mr can you please restate your name sorry the microphone wasn't on [Music] maybe it's just a little too short for you gerard coate i'm a 50-year resident of dartmouth and imagine if you will if you're driving around dartmouth you've never been here before and you

044see a picture of a native american warrior on people's lawns and you might ask yourself what is going on in this town and what do you think and what would a young child think of a warrior symbol is that what native americans are really known for uh warriors that's how they've been portrayed in popular culture when the net when the colonists came here to settle it was native americans that made him help them survive the first winter during the next 70 50 years two wars were found were forced in this area to take away their land to take away their culture they could only be residents if they accepted a new culture this it is time for us to recognize that where we stand and what our past is in this area less than about

045a mile from here there were native american refugees hundreds of them taken away and sold in slavery during a war that took away their land it is time for us to recognize that this symbol is not what native americans were all about they had a civilization they had a culture and where we stand when we walked into this building there should have been a sign that said this was native american land and in front of the town hall we could put up a statue of a native american family rather than a warrior corn would be a better sign better logo than than a at a brave and it's time for us to recognize this it's instead of talking about how it's always been it's not it's time we move on and to recognize with humility

046that we need to see the world in a different and more realistic way thank you uh to our microphone over here um hello my name is bronte masuko and i'm a junior here at dartmouth high school as well as being a student and a resident of dartmouth i'm the secretary of the naacp youth council of de bedford and an active member of the multicultural club here at the school i am not native american and i don't claim to speak for anyone except as a representative of the youth council and a student of this very school i was in class in this building from 7 30 to 203 today and had tennis practice on the courts outside this afternoon i have for three years participated on two varsity sports teams being referred to by the moniker

047dartmouth indians to reiterate i am not native american nor am i indian in a zoom meeting the multicultural club participated in i heard from other schools in massachusetts and listened to players on their own sports teams of indigenous descent speak on the deep hurt and offense they felt playing a team called as ours was as a member of two of these teams i could not help but to feel deeply ashamed of this damage we could have caused and continue to cause moving forward as a student of this school this logo is damaging thank you this microphone here hello my name is shirley dong i'm a dartmouth resident i'm also working at umass dartmouth as a professor of computer and science now as an immigrant i know very little about history in this area but when

048i say this logo and the effort trying to replace it cancel it i did some research one of the arguments for eliminate using of this logo is because the study the use of native american mascot has harmful impact on native american youth now i read those papers and all those research is on native american moscow not logo as you have heard enough tonight this is not a moscow moscow is something supposed to bring good luck to its processors and this is not as a researcher i have to be very clear every research results has to be limited to the area it could be up applied if you take a research result apply to something else that is wrong so with this particular logo there is no study to show this logo actually have harmful impact

049on dartmouth's native american use that does not exist also as immigrants i would like to tell you what happened in china about cultural evolution break old stuff they removed history for people's life you can read history in books but that's totally different than you live it in your life thank you uh this microphone here hi um good evening my name is david ahrens i've lived in dartmouth for 30 years so i guess that makes me an outsider i'm a member of the nacp and both my kids went to dartmouth schools on march 8th a number of native speakers put two untruths to rest that native people don't mind white people misusing their culture and that it somehow honors them we heard those speakers refute both of those excuses loud and clear um and to disagree

050with my friends on the other side um there were plenty of native american tribes who sent letters to the to the school committee on the 8th and read their statements on the mascot or opposing the mascot into the record so to maintain that that there is no other native opposition to the mascot is simply false for many uh for many dartmouth for many the dartmouth indian seems harmless enough we've all lived so long in a culture saturated with cigar store indians lawn jockeys and racially biased systems that many of us just accept it but many americans are starting to acknowledge the racial problems that have been swept under the rug for far too long even those who want to keep sweeping understand this there's one more excuse that retiring the mascot somehow erases native americans

051people who have lived here continuously for 10 000 years have survived colonial conquest genocide and slavery without the help of sports logos we heard from many of them on march 8th when the indian replaced the harpoon as the school symbol did it erase the history of whaling of course not so erasure is a strange argument we don't honor or value native americans by stamping an indian head on a coffee mug a key chain or a sweatshirt and we shouldn't try to speak for native people as the high school student manual does when it says this is what indians represent instead we should be teaching kids about native cultures past and present improving diversity in curriculum and staff a staff by the way which is 98.4 white a school committee which is by the way 100

052white and actually honoring native americans by i don't know making october 12th indigenous people's day the dartmouth indian is a relic of an age when white people could freely insult speak for and define others without consequence those days are over sooner or later this symbol will be history the question is on what side of history will dartmouth be thank you this microphone over here hi um my name is hannah bortis i am a dartmouth resident i have kids at quinn right now a fourth grader and a second grader i grew up in fairhaven and went to new bedford high um and i i mostly wanted to talk about education because so far the only education my kids have gotten about the indigenous history here is in third grade my daughter did a little bit in

053social studies about the settlers coming and how they lived and how the wampanoag lived at the time and that was pretty much it and i would love to see i know a lot of people are talking about a school curriculum i'd also love to see markers around town that honor the people who once lived here because that is there's just absolutely nothing and so i can understand why a lot of people are afraid that erasing the logo will erase the history because there really isn't any other history here so i'm a huge advocate for that also um i went up to boston for college and then i worked in publishing so i'm a writer and an editor and then after that i worked at the boston public schools as an ela teacher and right now

054i'm working as a substitute teacher in this area um i want to talk about language and how language matters and a lot of people are saying that the word indian is okay because it's used by the bureau of indian affairs and it's generally recognized as the word that people use and different tribes use as they communicate with each other and so it's kind of a catch-all term because there are so many different tribes and it would be really hard for everyone to keep them all straight in their heads so yeah indian works as a term but we have to remember that that came from the fact that somebody landed here and thought he was landing somewhere else so called everybody here indians and the bureau of indian affairs was started as the committee on indian

055i think it was like the committee on indian issues or maybe the committee on indian affairs in because the settlers here were trying to figure out what to do with these people it was never used as a bridge of understanding and right now it's used still it's called the bureau of indian affairs but the naacp is still called the naacp and we don't call black people colored people it's it these things change these things have to change and adapt to new understandings that we have you know and just because the bureau of indian affairs uses it doesn't mean that it's the right thing to do kendrick lamar uses the n-word but i'm not gonna tell him to stop and i'm also not gonna it doesn't mean that it's okay for me to say it so

056language matters and we have to respect the impact that it has on people uh microphone over here please my name's gretchen baker smith i'm a town meeting member dartmouth high graduate the mother of three alum i am a member of the naacp and a supporter of the mass indigenous legislative agenda calling for the passage of statewide bills to establish indigenous people's day to teach native cultures and history and public schools to protect native heritage and to ban school native mascots all of the native speakers at the march 8th forum expressed deep concern for the culturally racial of indigenous peoples i lift up dr hall's call for the select board to create a task force composed of town people and natives to the dartmouth tribal homeland area to discuss concrete ways of addressing this issue there

057was also unity among the native speakers on the need for significantly deeper integration of indigenous history past and present into dartmouth's curriculum they emphasize that this must be created and implemented in full collaboration with native leaders and educators i urge the school committee to step into this essential long overdue work without delay we must reckon with a native narrative history told exclusively from a white european male perspective that omits much of the oppression instituted for white game as well as the accomplishments and continued presence of indigenous peoples if there is any cultural erasure that needs to happen it is the culture of holding on to that version of history i do not agree with the defend dartmouth opinions or tactics but i have respect for their organizing and fundraising i urge them to continue campaigning

058against native erasure by putting up lawn signs and holding rallies that push for a robust curriculum and for a right relationship with all local indigenous tribes so that the town is not using a symbol that many indigenous peoples find harmful and offensive to do that thank you this microphone please my name is mary askalin i've been a resident of dartmouth for 33 years i have two sons that graduated from dartmouth high in 2005. i always found the logo of the dartmouth indian a very i looked at it more with pride and i think it it teaches um well it should symbolize and represent and be stressed to the uh all the high school students not just the sports athletics but that this is a sign of strength bravery and determination that is very fine qualities

059that the wampanoag indian has has possession of the the white man most of us the indians have suffered so much under us from nantucket throughout this area and through new england their lands have been taken unjustly throughout the country same thing the indians need a voice which they are getting but i feel that this symbol for our town shows that we we stand up for them the other thing is and i'm glad this has all come out yes we do need a curriculum we need curriculum for native studies for wampanoag and there are many tribes and a lot of these tribes are under confederations like the iroquois the wampanoag and they have several tribes under them i think it would be a wonderful thing i always have that not just in dartmouth schools but all

060over the country that we have native studies thank you over here thank you dr dickens my name is keith murphy i'm a dartmouth resident a lifelong resident my wife elizabeth spoke earlier i've been thinking a lot about what does defend dartmouth mean what are we defending dartmouth from i think defending dartmouth is about defending dartmouth from change think about this made me reflect on my children's experience growing up in town how that changed from my own experience when i grew up we commonly used the term indian instead of native american even tonight in talking about the indian logo we are seeing that the majority of people are using the term native american in not indian i went to ghibli school i had a t-shirt with a caricature of an indian on it my kids went

061to jabello school they had a t-shirt with a wolf on it we all felt pride in our shirt i used to love when my dad took me to football games in hearing the pa announcer say indians first down and during big drives the band would play the indian war song while the crowd did the tomahawk chop i remember the cheerleaders used to sell foam tomahawks when i took my kids to games we no longer do those type of derogatory gestures or performances however the pa announcer does still say indians first down i wonder though does he say indian all the time or does he use the term native american as we continue to change how we use the logo i have a few ideas i'd like to share if you decide to keep dating a

062mascot please consider formal guidelines at the high school for how the indian logo should be used i talked to mr gifford today mrs gifford today dr gifford and there are currently no guidelines dictating how the athletic teams should be using the logo i believe we should have clear guidelines make sure it's appropriate i think we should consider recognizing indigenous people day like the city of cambridge does i also think we should be read tribal land statements at the beginning of all school activities all of these activities would go a long way to celebrate our american history our native american history i have one more section my final thought is that this debate has gotten way out of hand as a comment as a community we are engaged in what the author anna ripley calls high

063conflict high conflict happens when debate and disagreements leads to us versus them thinking over time when we are in high complex high conflict situations we increasingly inflate the virtue of our own beliefs while diminishing the beliefs of those we disagree with one common way of posing this cycle is to use an external neutral mediator to help both sides discuss and to come to common agreement i encourage the school committee and the school department to consider using an outside mediator to help us resolve this issue within the town if we move if we are to move forward we need to cool down the situation and see each other as community members and not people we need to be defended against thank you [Applause] uh my name is roger duarte i am a dartmouth resident and former

064middle school massachusetts educator good evening i purchased my forever home here in dartmouth three and a half years ago so as a fairly new resident i have no nostalgia to fall back upon i am a lifelong resident of the area with the exception of my military service time and it seems to me that this situation is hardly worth mentioning when you put it up against other problems we face in the town keeping the drinking water clean maintaining the roads bettering the children's education and getting businesses to occupy derelict properties yet here we are discussing whether or not we will continue to accept a drawing made by a wampanoag high school student in 1974. we live in a free society and that comes with a gift of rights but it requires responsibility as well every individual

065has personal values and morals that they base their decisions upon and i am no different what we are looking at is whether or not we will as some have already said erase history as young as it is it is history because some people believe that erasing things is the answer to social problems i am not one of those people and to be honest is this really a problem or is it the product of some who are offended by something and therefore trying to eliminate it i've seen and heard it said that this issue is not about woke culturalism i vehemently disagree it is all about it if we're all to try and eliminate everything that offends us we would never have the time to live our lives let alone accomplish anything or have the time

066left over to fight for things that truly matter to the community i caution everyone against allying themselves to those with agenda to prove change can be good but not if it's being done for the sake of itself equity has replaced equality diversity has overshadowed inclusiveness and we only have ourselves to blame as a society when we have allowed thinking that requires everyone to be special we are all unique individuals but none of us is any better than the other reject agendas disagree with progressive thought and reclaim the power to reshape the narrative that is what i will do because i am not willing to add another feather to the cap that rests on the altar of wokism thank you for your time and attention uh this microphone over here good evening my name is uh

067ricardo rosa i work in dartmouth i sleep in new bedford and i like to first of all begin and there's a reason why i sleep in new bedford by the way but i'd like to first of all begin by thanking dr jenkins for her comments at the very beginning it was the really beautiful way to set up a democratic sort of atmosphere and democracy sometimes gets loud so i also appreciate you know a lot of what's going on in this room i'm going to speak to you as an outsider and uh as a person who came here in 2011 and had the choice to live in dartmouth i chose not to live in dartmouth because i didn't really feel that it was a welcoming place and i look around this room and i'm sure that

068some of you all probably don't feel that you feel that it's very welcoming but that's just it you know communities are really not good at being honest with themselves about themselves so um i like to begin uh you know by saying that um you know i didn't choose dartmouth because i you know i recall i rented an apartment in new bedford and i decided to take my family to round hill beach i believe it's called and you know the way that i was turned away the words that were used the affect really suggested to me that this is not really a welcoming place and so i decided to buy a home in new bedford and not dartmouth because of it and um you know my perception of dartmouth changed it changed in june 2020 as

069i was driving around and saw a whole lot of folks especially young folks taking to the streets and protesting the killing of george floyd and it's to those folks that i want to speak today you know so i'm going to look into the camera i'd like to speak to the folks at home you know speaking to a lot of people what i'm hearing is that look this is not my place i'm not going to say anything i'm on the right side of justice i know what to do but i'm not going to do anything because it's not my place because the akina tribe the akina nation is saying that they're for it and i want to just express a little something about this word called cultural relevant relativism right and it's this notion that because

070you're not in the culture it's not your place to say anything even though you know better right if i were to pull 40k virgins into this room today mk verde and if i were to ask them about you know their perceptions of colonialism some of them would say that colonialism was a good thing for kaver others would say that it was horrific right as a kaverian i can tell you that the greatest respect that you can show my culture is to understand both sides dr rosa please please wrap it up and to take a position on the side of justice right i just want to say that you know i don't support this logo the fact that you all are just having this conversation in dartmouth to me is mind-boggling because we're not talking about

071dartmouth only dartmouth doesn't exist as if it's sealed off from you know wider history you know wider issues confronting this country uh so it's something i think you know the fact that dr rosa please finish your stop i will finish thank you one second the fact that we don't have a curriculum today that represents native people the way it should in a town that you say is honoring native americans that in itself is just mind-boggling you know you should think about that i'll stop there thank you thank you here please thank you my name is george marcotte i live in dartmouth and i am the chairperson of the defend dartmouth so i'm very proud of what we're trying to do here and i'd just like to ask did any one of you when you ran

072for school and i'm not an educator i'm not a member of the naacp i'm just a voter i'm a taxpayer in this town i don't have all the academia that everybody's throwing around and all the naacp but did any one of you run when you ran and we're going to be voted for in this town a school committee is i'm going to change the the logo the symbol of this town did anyone run on that did you say that's what i'm going to do that's going to be my number one cause silence i didn't think so there's so much going on with our kids with kovi right now and we're sitting here right now you're dividing miss jenkins has divided the school committee mr nunes mr oliver are in favor of the logo miss wait

073miss jenkins no and miss amaral is in the middle so ms zaro we have a solution here at defend dartmouth and that's called a referendum and when april 5th comes we're going to hand you a majority you then can take that majority and look at miss jenkins and say you know what i'm going to vote with the townspeople miss wait miss jenkins you'll have an opportunity if you'd like to change your decision and i love what mr hall said today i can't thank you enough for what you said that would be dr hall dr hall excuse me and i have to thank you you said you were disappointed in the referendum you're disappointed that we get to vote for that you're disappointed in democracy you also said mr marcotte i would ask you to address

074your comments to the school committee and not to other members of the audience okay fine we shouldn't vote for such things so here we are you've divided the tribes miss jenkins you brought you cherry-picked tribes from louisiana maine somebody from hanover all to just to meet your point of view where we have the wampanoag quina here that want it and you're looking at at other tribes this isn't a racist thing this has nothing to do with racism you'd like to just throw racism and everything you had a diversity in some a diversity subcommittee diversity inclusion is when everyone's invited to par to the party and everyone's asked to dance we didn't get that chance they're not part of the subcommittee who got it you're you're excluding instead of including the wampanoag are very willing to

075help out and to be a part and maybe a better spot and i'll leave you with this and this is what really really really gets me the hypocrisy in this room the hypocrisy i have a picture right here on my phone i can show you where you're standing with your arm around the corsair for those who don't know what the corsair is the corsair is the mascot symbol of umass dartmouth the corsair is a barbary pirate who sailed the seas from two and uh basically the from 2000 no excuse me um eight 1600s to the 1800s and they did what all pirates did they stole they looted they were enslaved trade right and they also call their women wenches that's what a barbary pirate that's what of course three minutes please complete yourself okay i

076will some people went to four minutes so that's what a corsair is a corsair is a barbary pirate who is in the slave trade and call the women wenches i don't see anyone here miss jenkins or anyone of yours that are offended by that but you're offended by a warrior that is a indigenous person and this in this town that everybody is in favor for including the andrews that did it so i just ask you in a common sense thing it's not a racist issue this is just common sense our kids have enough problems with cover 19 and everything that has gone on that's what you should be focusing on and defend dartmouth is here to stay you're going to get a majority you can do what you want if you want to vote against

077the majority of the people defend dartmouth will be here when it comes time for you to run for reelection or remind everybody what ended up happening thank you this microphone here please good evening everybody uh my name is doug roscoe i live in dartmouth uh a couple speakers ago someone talked about all the difficult problems we have to in town drinking water and so forth and we have difficult national problems like you know the war in ukraine and inflation and this issue to me is a simple one because it's about how do you treat other people with care and respect that's it and if in my personal dealings with people i do something that is offensive and people tell me it's offensive i don't do it anymore i stop doing it i try not to

078offend people and i don't have to defend all people to offend some people offending some people is bad if you offend some people we shouldn't offend them and we shouldn't do that as a community with our public policy in the same way we wouldn't do that as an individual with each other i brought some statements from tribes and native american organizations that have talked about how offensive and harmful this is to them they've expressed this they expressed it at march 8th at the forum but if you missed that let me quote some of them this is a statement from the mashpee wampanoag tribe matthew wankenhub tribe calls for a prohibition on all native american sport team mascots nicknames logos in massachusetts public schools harmful to native american youth increases stereotypes constitutes offensive mockery of our

079people and an appropriation of our culture similar statement from the chappaquiddick tribe of the wampanoag nation called for prohibition on all native american sport team mascots nicknames logos similar statement herring pond wampanoag tribe symbols and imagery such symbols and imagery are deeply offensive racist and harmful to the well-being of indigenous people and especially to our native youth pocasset wampanoag tribe same pro support prohibiting the use of native american mascots by public schools in the commonwealth massachusetts poncapog tribal council strongly supports legislation that explicitly prohibits all native american sport teams mascots nicknames logos it is both prejudicial and damaging when people who are not native american utilize our identities names images cultural practices for their own purposes uh national congress of american indians is the oldest largest and most representative national organization national indian education association

080this has been 50 years that native americans have been telling us to stop using native american imagery and symbolism in our public schools in our sports teams they're offended and it's harmful to them and i don't think we should do it and i think that's important for us to do but i think it's also important for us to recognize that history and so i would like to propose that we have a display case in the hallway that explains the history of the relationship between dartmouth high school and native americans in this area it acknowledges the land our high school sits on and acknowledges the history of the adoption of the of the indian logo i think it should acknowledge mr clyde andrews and his attempt to make that logo more honorable and respectful and i

081hope it ends with a panel about how we voted as a town to retire the logo in 2022 over here good evening my name is patricia dewart and i have been a resident of dartmouth for 68 years i am a graduate of document schools i've also done public speaking in dartmouth on many topics however this one is dear to my heart i have family in the match b wampanox who do not object to this logo it is not a mascot and i've heard that repeatedly referred to tonight it is a logo week that was developed with a lot of respect and a lot of love that all of us have had over the years in having it in our yearbooks and on our shirt i take issue with a lady whom i read in the

082favor that said she had gone to cumberland farms with her grandchild and a couple of students were dressed as indians totally inappropriate and was screaming and hooping and hollering and she had a reply to them my reply is the grandmother would have been their parents didn't teach them any better that comes first from the home that kind of behavior you don't do that in public and you don't intimidate other types of people be you black white or indian or any other culture that comes from the home it also comes from our educators i went to umass dartmouth i was met mixed in with lots of cultures and i have respect for all of those people i've had many people that were students at massachusetts maritime academy that stayed in my home and taught me the

083culture of other countries of other colors of skin we need to look at this at what it is it is a logo that we have been proud of since 1974. i take issue as an individual and someone that was brought up in this town that everybody suddenly someone took offense with the indian why we never took offense to it before these last two years why not it to me as an older resident it does it just does not work right with me and people need to think about this you folks at school committee members and i will close with this need to put more effort into teaching civics again in the house school i couldn't graduate without civics we don't teach it anymore is that why some of our kids don't know which president is

084rich which one was attempted assassination which one was an order they don't know there's a lot of the kids we asked they don't even know a lot of other things that was part of civics and history that now is being dislocated we need to teach them how to behave we need to look at suicide as one of the previous speakers as someone who has sat with parents whose families have committed suicide i know that grief and those people those kids that are in our heights please wrap up those kids that are in our high school now need to have you to back them down with some courses some workshop some speakers to talk about the issues there with our youth today worry about today and where we're going don't worry about the past it has

085survived all these years thank you this microphone over here please evening my name is jamie jacquard resident of dartmouth we had three children in the dartmouth school systems and currently two have graduated first i just want to recognize that most often public servants who are volunteering their time and have elected to a board like this don't get to choose the issues that come up within the community after they've been elected so i recognize that the contributions that you folks have made and are dealing with the times as they are and the issues that come up i think we all can agree that a school logo matters in the same way that words matter but they both can be either supportive or harmful and as mr roscoe had mentioned i think that we now know the

086fact that there is harm that's being inflicted and going forward that's on us to own that responsibility so if we choose to keep this logo which i think is a very bad idea then we own that shame and that horror and that um the harm that we're doing to other people that's on us that's not on somebody from you know 30 years ago how hurtful something can be really is expressed by those who are being represented at best we have conflicting information on how the native tribes in our region feel about this at worst we see people who are deeply offended by this even if the community is not representing this logo in a disparaging way it can still be seen as harmful i learned more about this logo through these discussions the articles written

087by jack spelling and the stories by the local tribal members learning that after the king phillips war that all the remaining tribal members were rounded up and then sold into slavery in the west indies is a painful reminder that we tend to gloss over in the unpopular sections of our own history rather than learning from that to me my pride is in our community and that comes from the name of our community which is dartmouth our public schools that attend um gain that in that same way and the reputations of those programs that they're participating in whether that's sports or in music when our indoor percussion goes out on tour they're representing dartmouth they're not going in as the dartmouth indian team they're going into the dartmouth high school indoor percussion team the same goes

088for our marching band when they're being when they're marching in florida or in that stadium they're not the indian marching band they're the dartmouth marching band that is our source of our pride i think this process has brought to light that while people may support the use of the indian logo that there are others who are deeply offended by it there's many cultural references that have not aged well over time and that have since been retired as a community we can find a new logo that does not offend people while at the same time including more stories honest stories of our own history and all of our people i wholeheartedly agree that we need to do a lot more around education we've had 50 years given the opportunity to include that education whether that's in

089monuments around town or in our educational programs and it's high time to do that and to retire this logo microphone over here please good evening my name is shelly scott and my family and i have been proud residents of dartmouth for the past 15 years our oldest has graduated dartmouth high school our middle child is in ninth grade here and our youngest is in dartmouth middle school i actually grew up living in many states throughout the northeast my father moved around to find work and each sibling in my family was born in a different state i feel like it was no mistake that i was the one born in massachusetts toby hospital in wareham to be exact i've always felt that massachusetts was my home dartmouth especially has so much to offer town beach the

090bucket crepo field quinn school we have met so many people as part of sports teams through theater our neighbors and most recently color guard the dartmouth folks we interact with have been great helping us find our way around town for example knowing how important it is to show up to town hall early on the morning of dartmouth town camp sign ups those lines right okay uh we appreciate you our neighbors and we have made great memories together i'm here tonight to talk about the dartmouth indian this issue is polarizing but what i see on both sides are people i appreciate care about and respect i hear loud and clear the many voices of the indigenous tribes including the wampanoag piccasset aquina mashbi and more stating that using the image of a native person as a

091logo causes harm harm to indigenous children self-worth harm to all children in perpetuating stereotypes and one-dimensional views of very sophisticated and multi-dimensional human beings harm in the ways that some people express their spirit and love for dartmouth teams in whoops to mimic a native war cry wearing war paint and the use of feathers a sacred honor to mark significant acts of bravery i also hear clearly my sisters and brothers who advocate with the chant defend dartmouth save the indian i believe that your cry is one of good intent you intend to honor the native peoples of our land to preserve the history that includes the use of the dartmouth indian in the many positive memories that you have of the mighty mighty indians chanted at games and elsewhere as a form of school pride it

092also moves me that the kearney family spoke of the steps taken to empathize with our native peoples when the original mascot was redesigned to reflect our regional tribes more accurately i believe that this action their empathy was intended to honor our native peoples by depicting a more accurate visage of our native people it is the same empathetic spirit that i appeal to now in all of my neighbors who wish to defend dartmouth by defending our children from the harm the dartmouth indian is causing the intent may have been good but the effect is clearly harm numerous studies have shown us that unequivocally please wrap up okay so what's next what do we do now have you ever heard the saying when you know better do better there was a time when my children would not

093have been able to attend the same school as their white friends due to their biracial heritage a time when my husband would have only been valued as three-fifth as a human being as our nation grew we began to know better and through many painful struggles we began to do better there is such love in this place especially for our children it unites us the dartmouth i believe in takes the difficult step of moving past our current state never erasing it but growing together to do better friends and neighbors we know we now know better let us have both the character and the courage to do better our children deserve alaska and our children are watching thank you thank you this microphone here mr tattlebum thank you everybody my name is dave tattlebaum long time resident

094dhs class of 1970. i am a current member of the dartmouth select board my comments are my own i don't represent the select board although i do intend to convey the same message to my select board colleagues initially i was against keeping the indian logo feeling that any logo mascot or characterization of native americans was the dark was derogatory and disrespectful the cover of my 1970 dhs yearbook was a disgusting depiction which until a few years ago i had conveniently erased from my memory i'm naive and desensitized i must have been protesting against the foreign vietnam war but unable unwilling to face the tragedy of this insulting caricature here at home enter the bright light of positivity respect and historical perspective of our proud 1.0 tribal members as my long time friend clyde andrews has

095said his logo was a dignified depiction of a proud people yes keep the logo but it must must be accompanied by a mandatory curriculum created monitored by a committee compromised comprised of faculty administration and tribal members and parents if we had done this 20 and 30 and 40 years ago we wouldn't be here today it's a damn shame and we can't look back we need to look forward how exciting it would be and respectful to start our younger students on a path to learn honor and truly respect the equina and the incredible history of our town and how about signs plaques and monuments spread over town at significant historical sites certainly to include our beloved dartmouth memorial stadium it would make coach flintz proud without this educational component this logo is really no better or

096worse than any others all over the state and country this is not about defending dartmouth what is this a war zone there aren't enough wars and conflict in this country in this world what does defend mean it's not about keeping the logo just because we've had it for so long this is not a line in the sand are you with me or against me we've had enough of that over the last four or five years that it's it's that is disgusting to me as well let's learn from the tribal members from the tribal member from ashby a member of the school committee in that town who helped create an educational program they are so proud of the idea there is of course their logo was gone we can keep ours but not without our commitment

097to also educate or how about the tribal member who spoke for man couldn't you just feel his pain isolating the town with no respect for his history why wouldn't he want us to dump our logo this is about going all the way to honor our tribe educate our kids to feel so proud of our town and doing this in the most respectful and yes loving way to embrace our 350-year history please wrap up with all our tribes warts and all to probably say to our kids and grandkids we have finally bestowed the honor and respect so deserving to our proud indigenous drives thank you over here hi um my name is lee mcgregor um i came here i'm a dartmouth resident i grew up in dartmouth went to dartmouth high graduated in 1992. the three-season

098athlete wore all the uniforms with the dartmouth indian logo i came here tonight not really intending to speak i have i guess i'm what you'd say one of the quieter kids in the back of the classroom i've been watching this debate play out um and i think a few things have really resonated with me tonight um i agree with a lot of what has been said on both sides having grown up in dartmouth um having chosen to move back to dartmouth to raise my family i do feel as though i had a lot of pride wearing the jerseys that i did i think that we all intended to wear the logo um with pride and and i think that for the most part we did i do remember there were some inappropriate chants i remember

099headdresses at certain events i remember the you know chops and cries i don't believe any of that was meant out of disrespect i think as we've grown we've learned more and those things have fallen away i moved away i went to college i lived away i remember wearing sweatshirts and having uncomfortable conversations with people who were not from dartmouth and having my perspective widen i think that it's important for us to understand that we all are living here whether we've grown up here and chosen to come back whether we grew up here and stayed here and have extended family here whether we've come to the area because jobs have brought us here or we just wanted a change of pace and came back came to dartmouth because we didn't want to be in a big

100city i think it's important to understand that we all have some shared values just by the fact that we live here in dartmouth um i sense some fear a lot of fear by those who want to hold on to our logo in reading different things in the papers and reading different posts by friends of mine that i'm still pleased with that went to dartmouth high were worried about change what i would like to say though is we need to prepare our children to not just live in dartmouth we may feel that this is uniquely a dartmouth issue but hopefully we are preparing children to go out into a wider world that has different perspective and has people that may be offended by this logo and so that is why my hope is that we do

101revisit this and we retain dartmouth pride but we do not retain the logo thank you this microphone over here good evening my name is joanne avila i want to thank the committee for allowing public comment on this issue i know that hearing dissenting views is not always the pleasure of the chairman but thus our voices will be heard tonight i'm a graduate of dartmouth high school class of 1996. my children attend this school system as well my family has deep roots in this town i stand here tonight in support of our indian logo and i stand with the aquino wampanoag tribe and support them in their efforts to preserve their history i am baffled by the fact that the school committee as well as the equity and diversity committee with the majority of its members

102in education didn't even consider korean an educational program for our students regarding the tribe's history contributions and the significance of our logo instead your efforts have been focused on railing against this tribe who've repeatedly asked that they not be erased from our history it's sad that a group of educators have stooped this low and that the members of the school committee have sat by watching and allowing all this to happen all of you should be ashamed of yourselves i ask that both the equity and diversity committee as well as the school committee develop an educational program that should become part of our curriculum this is the least that these committees can do to show respect to the tribe which has been lacking i want to caution all the voters in the town of dartmouth and

103want to remind you that this is a non-binding ballot question don't be fooled and think the results of this ballot question will be honored back in the summer of 2000 the school committee sent out a survey to dartmouth parents asking them what learning environment they wanted for their children for the 2021 school year in person hybrid or remote i'm sure many of you remember receiving that survey i filled it out myself over 70 percent of those who completed the survey wanted in-person learning what did the chairman and the members of this committee do toss those results in the trash and vote for full remote learning so please don't think that the chairman will honor the will of the people she believes that all who support this logo are racist she laughs at all of us

104who came out tonight who support this logo and the tribe again i want to point out the inaction of the committee members who haven't even spoke out publicly to condemn her on her tweets that are public by the way which you won't be able to find because she has since erased them along with the tweet that massless people are idiots i want to remind i'm sorry finally remember if we keep electing the same people to this school committee will never have our voices heard let's make this year the year that we change the landscape because if we don't who knows what we're going to face next please wrap up no problem please vote yes to defend the logo on april 5th and please vote for a change on this school committee microphone over here please

105i'd like to i'd like to um just do a time check here we have about 20 minutes left which i believe will be just about everyone who's in line um so i'll have this have you over here sorry please state your name and share your thoughts thank you my name is michael matos a dartmouth resident and parent of three children in the school system um i don't have any prepared remarks i just wanted to get up and express my my opinions on this thank you for the forum to do that um i think my takeaway tonight is you know there's two ways to really look at it and i think we've gotten pretty deep um we've gone for a deep dive in a lot of different cultural issues tonight uh that that are within dartmouth

106and nationally and everything um but the the forum is about whether we keep the logo or not the the the warrior logo the indian logo and my personal opinion on it is i haven't heard anything that in my opinion from what i heard from you know mr pereira mr ferreira ventura or mr carney that would insinuate anything uh that that the history that the way it was developed in 1974 by mr andrews with the intent of it to have any sort of sort of derogatory or racist intent and if if i felt that way i wouldn't agree with keeping it but my personal opinion is that as other folks have said there's a lot of issues we should be talking about i feel this is a little unnecessary in that regard i think that the

107logo shows strength and it's been a symbol of unity for a lot of folks in this town and in this region and for this state i mean our flag massasoit i think indian culture massachusetts is important and i think that personally when i see an image of an indian i feel proud that whether it be massachusetts whether it be dartmouth or whatever i feel pride by that and so because of that i support keeping the logo and i hope that on april 5th if the voters of this community also support that i hope the school committee will honor their wishes thank you thank you uh over here please my name is lance martin i've been a town resident for 55 years when i listen to young people say how they offended by the logo and

108and the things that it's that it's done to their emotion i want to tell you what the logo did for me when i got my first uniform from this high school i was honored i trained harder i tried to be the best that i could be and i left this school with the greatest opportunity that anyone in the school had ever received i am the first recipient of a full scholarship to play football at a division one level i attain thank you i attended the university of syracuse in 1977 and 1978 i was a high school all-american i represented that logo to the best of my ability i did it with nothing more than pride straight gratitude for what this school did for me what the logo did for me and my inspiration and as

109far as the ownership of the logo mr andrews had drawn that that emblem in 1974 through the fruits of his labor no man owns the fruits of the labor of any other man so he is in complete ownership whatever the destination is of that logo should be determined by him and clyde i respected your fruits of labor so much that in 1977 in the junior olympic championships i placed and your inspiration gave me the inspiration thank you very much thank you uh this microphone here please my name is kevin kercher i'm a dartmouth resident with three kids in the school system two here at the high school and uh i was in a conversation we had a wide-ranging dinner conversation the other night and we were talking about russia we were talking about the new

110u.n climate report we were talking about this mascot issue and one of my kids said to me you know the older i get the more i realize you can't really count on adults to do the right thing and that really upset me you know i was stunned at first and then i thought about it and i thought you know we have lined up a lot of examples of how that's the case and so the question i think tonight for this what is the right thing in terms of this logo and i think the first thing i would say is to talk about it civilly to listen to each other and to really consider the full complexities of what on one level is this very simple issue on one another level is a very difficult issue

111and i think the idea that we should not be having this conversation right now at all is really misguided and i think and also the idea that this conversation is not possible along with the complex lots of other complexities going on the school system i think is wrong and so one thing i want to say is thank you to all the members of the school board and especially the dr gifford who have gone through the toughest two years that any school board has ever faced and dealt with enormously complex difficult issues in a lot of different ways and done it i know each of you has done it as well as you possibly could so i want to thank you for that i want to thank you for facilitating this conversation tonight i think one

112of the things that i'm hearing tonight is that for the most part this is there actually is room for common ground on this and everybody here tonight says agrees on one thing that we need to be respectful about the native american heritage in this town and i think the question is how to do that how to best do that and you know we heard stories of some of the ways in which the the mascot was treated previously and how that has evolved and i know you know someone was saying oh we would not put it on a field but we're putting it on the helmets and i think it's really important to know that for a lot of folks that that distinction is not good enough is that okay to have it on a helmet

113not have it on the field there are a lot of kids in the school system that don't want to wear it on their uniforms that don't want to get their pictures taken in front of it when they get when they graduate last year every student had their official diploma picture was influenced please wrap up a step in a repeat logo background without that on it and so i just think number one is that it's a really important issue that we do need to deal with uh the the national congress of american indians has said specifically they they don't want to use native americans or indians as logo mascots they want to get rid of it they've asked us to do that and and i think that we as a community can handle having this discussion

114in a civil way and finding a good common ground answer on it and ideally having a mascot that's just unique to us and unifying thanks all right so we have three final speakers for this evening we'll go here and there and there clicker please hi my name is natalie murphy and i'm a freshman here at dartmouth high as a new high school student i have not noticed many students who want to talk about this issue i don't know if that's because they don't want to fight or if they just don't have opinions on it but i know that kids have been forced to prove our resilience over and over again in the last two years we have missed out on so much we are exhausted the pandemic is getting better but the world we are

115inheriting is still a total mess everyone seems to know that teenagers are struggling with mental health more than ever all of this fighting doesn't help us we have enough insecurity about what we wear and who we might offend with our opinions and our identities so please help us teach us set some limits help us wear uniforms that don't make us worry we've offended our opponents i think we have proved that kids can adapt we want to learn and be respectful to everyone in dartmouth and where we travel representing our town please help us find a way to respect the symbol that honors mr andrews his family and his people without inadvertently forcing us to alienate others please be our educational and our moral leaders the adults are the adults dartmouth students need to be able

116to rely on this is not a popularity contest let's not pretend it is we are counting on you to speak up for us thank you over here please uh hello my name is jacob lancaster i am a junior at dartmouth high school and i am a current athlete in football and baseball when i show up to practice and i put on the indian with that logo or it brings pride it brings strength i think it symbolizes the native americans the wampanoag tribe in general um i think that there is like no greater pride than putting on that jersey and going to play for it and as somebody said earlier it is not a mascot it is a logo it symbolizes it's not something that people dance around in it they don't step on it i

117think it's very well um very well like kept it's not disrespected in any way and when i have it on the helmet i think it doesn't like make it worse it makes you like strong as you could say it makes you have pride to be a dartmouth indian and yeah that's all i had to say thank you very much all right our last speaker of the evening my my name is connor murphy i'm a junior at dartmouth high school my sister and both of my parents have also spoken my i'm a lifelong resident of dartmouth my parents are and my grandfather is and many people have spoken today about how the indian mascot they believe is solely a town issue and that if the tribe that if native americans around the town believe believe that

118they do not find a fence with it that it can only be viewed from the town's perspective but as mr rosa has said and many others have reiterated this issue does not only work with the town it is involved all over the nation there are so many similar situations where this has come up and been dealt with much better than it has here and many issues have been dealt with in this the indian mascot does not properly represent the native american people those who believe that there's pride built it's based off of a warrior stereotype of the native americans and that is not valid for for all of those people you cannot just have a whole town find pride off of one stereotype like that and the other issue that the other side will find

119with this is just the battle against change in the community and the battle against the woke mob as they call it and this just is not a valid argument against the other against their opposing side against this side it is just because something changes and just because something evolves with new thought with more enlightened thinking does not make it bad it does not make it the enemy and it's not a sign of weakness or craziness it's just new information and people being able to finally speak out that have been silenced and that have been just the minority for so long that they were silenced over time and now they've been now just because these thoughts have resurfaced and become louder does not mean that they are new it does not mean that they have negatively

120affected the community that's all thank you well i think it's appropriate that we finish with three students um i'd like to thank it's good to hear from our students i'd like to thank the members of the community for um coming and sharing their opinions this evening um is there any other matters the committee has not we have not covered i have a motion by mr nunes to adjourn do i have a second second i have a second by miss wait is there any further discussion on this issue hearing none all in favor opposed motion carries unanimously thank you everyone thank you everybody thank you [Music] so [Music] you