001good evening everybody i'd like to call the march 8 meeting of the equality and diversity subcommittee and the school committee to order i'd like to ask everyone to please stand for the pledge of allegiance and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right so we're going to start with we're going to roll call the quality and diversity subcommittee into order first because we have some minutes to approve and then we'll call the school committee into order so i'll start with a roll call kelly bloom elizabeth murphy lily chamberlain uh diane massari yeah uh mark hayes here shelly scott here juliana pamphiel here and jada walker here and shannon jenkins i'm here mr tebow could not make it he's coaching his daughter's basketball team
002and they made the playoffs so that is an excused absence for mr tebow first the first item on our agenda or there's there's two items and then one notification first we need to approve some minutes um we haven't approved our regular session minutes from july 13 2021 on august 18 2021. so let's start with the first one those were attached to the agenda i will entertain a motion to approve the regular session minutes for july 13th oh i'm sorry miss ammeral i need to roll call you in because you are also a member of the equality subcommittee sorry yeah okay um i will entertain a motion to approve the regular session minutes for july 13 2021. so move i have a motion by miss amarillo may have a second second all right i have a
003motion by miss amarillo in a second by miss murphy is there any discussion on the minutes from july 13 2021 hearing none all in favor opposed abstentions all right so that motion carries unanimously dr gifford is uh taking minutes for us um next i'll entertain a motion to approve the regular session minutes for august 18th 2021 so moved motioned by miss amaral they have a second thank you miss murphy i have a second bye miss murphy um is there any further discussion on the minutes from august 18th hearing none all in favor aye opposed abstentions all right so that motion carries unanimously um before we adjourn to our joint session i just want to let you know that last night at the school committee meeting we are informed that the terms for the equality and
004diversity subcommittee technically expired in december the committee voted last night to extend your term for i think one week but i think it was for this meeting i can't remember the exact but it essentially means for this meeting whether it was one day or one week it's for this meeting the school committee will be taking up the issue of reappointments or reconstituting um the equality and diversity subcommittee at our next meeting so we would like to ask if if you are interested in continuing to serve it doesn't guarantee that you will be reappointed that you indicate your interest by emailing ms genther that you would be if you would be willing to continue to serve or not again that doesn't guarantee appointment but we they've asked for you to indicate whether or not you would
005like to continue any questions about that okay with that then i will entertain a motion to adjourn to joint session not to return to open session so moved all right so i have a motion by miss amaral look to miss murphy get a second for me again second by miss murphy um i'm going to ask mr nunes is my parliamentarian do i need to roll call that or is that just a regular thank you mr mr nunes is our our historian slash parliamentarian which we appreciate very much so um is there any further discussion on that you're hearing none all in favor i opposed abstentions all right so um now we will adjourn into the joint session and next i will convene the joint session of the dartmouth school committee and the equality and diversity
006subcommittee and uh i guess i will roll call the school committee into order uh mr oliver here mr nunes yep ms amberle yes miss waite yes uh and miss jenkins i am also president all right so um on our agenda we have uh one sort of item and that is presenting presenters addressing the matter of the dartmouth logo um we have uh speakers from the mashfi 1 wampanoag wampanoag the cassette wampanoag the equino wampanoag and the north american indian center of boston all of these groups of people have been given similar instructions but i will just say them for the record now each presenter we've asked to sort of limit to 10 to 15 minutes they can divide that up as they see fit for the equino wampanoag we have two different groups here speaking
007they will each get 10 to 15 minutes at that time after any group is spoken the committee any of the committee members are welcome to ask any questions of the presenters i will ask each of the presenters to identify themselves anyone who is with them and then we will go ahead and give them time to speak so with that being said is there any questions or comments before we get started mr news madam chair just and again uh just remind everyone to put their cell phones on silently oh yes thank you mr nintz please uh for we do have an audience here tonight so please make sure you silence your cell phones i forgot to do that myself so thank you for the reminder um we have some presenters here with us in person this
008evening and we have some presenters who are here with us uh virtually um and so i'm just going to follow the order as it is listed on the agenda um and i'm not sure there is any rhyme or reason to listing on the agenda but that's the most rational way to proceed and so we're going to start with the the mash p wampanoag who i believe are joining us virtually so i will wait for the uh somebody i do know that shauna is joining us virtually and so she is she here okay thank you um i think maybe shauna is also here virtually but we will uh go ahead and allow you to come up to the podium and and speak and i'm looking at mr galasha sort of to know if if uh sean
009is also here and we'll be um we'll be speaking so we'll just ask you to to introduce yourselves um but we will uh go ahead and allow you to um come up to the podium and and speak and uh i'm looking at mr gallacher sort of to know all right so we're figuring out some technical issues i believe um but um would you please go ahead and introduce yourselves and we'll allow you to go ahead and speak first all i'd like to say good talk to brian for allowing me to go before him my name is dawn d-a-w-n my last name is blake souza i am not technically a mashpee rompanova but i am considered an elder of the wampanoag tribe i have grandchildren who are mashpee i would like to convey a little story
010because that's the way we teach we teach those stories and this is a true story i'll make it as brief as possible several years ago i was at the cumberland farms in dartmouth over there in the corner of slogan road and my seven-year-old grandson kitsau was with me and my son his dad and we were just picking out a few items and some young ladies came in and they were acting very strangely they were hoping and hollering they had war paint on and they were dressed to our horror in costume and my grandson said grandma what are they doing and i i didn't understand because i didn't know the time about the the mascot at the high school and my son looked at me said mom they're coming from that football game over there and
011i said but they're dressed like that they're acting like that and i couldn't explain that to my seven-year-old grandchild it was so outlandish that i couldn't give him an adequate explanation i find it very offensive and i tried to under explain it to my grandson how adults today in this time this age can allow that kind of behavior and that's my that's my true story so i would consider i would ask this committee to consider seriously consider how it affects us the i find it personally i'm 77 years old i have 14 grandchildren and my my grandchildren are growing up primarily in mashpee they go to the mashfi language school and i i hope that you would consider their feelings and how you would feel if your culture was misappropriated in that way thank you
012thank you for listening thank you thank you shauna did you want to go real quick i think there may be a delay okay and then i can go um wanina khan natasha lee's mosquito new tomas masipia kanatai masipiya um what i just said is good day good evening my name is bearhart i come from ashby and i live in mashpee um i also have the honor and privilege of serving as the chairman of the mashpeewompnog tribe over the next three years on our language in our reservation we have a language school our language school is a montessori-based language school we teach our children wampanoag curriculum from hunting fishing gathering to how to survive in this day and age the school is named after weedamu and weedamu was one of the wampanoag sachims who actually fought
013with her people during king phillips war which is still one of the bloodiest and brutal wars um this continent nation has ever seen some of our students got together and put together a little video in this video is patakohan lopes who's six years old juliet green deer who is wampanoag in ho chunk and then shaylee johnson who is also six years of age and they're from the makai sukuiku school so here's a little message from them [Music] so i feel like it's important that we would be mindful of our youth i come here as an innocent bystander i have no conflicts of interest i have no nickel in that quarter so to speak about what you guys decide to do with the logo or not i think the biggest thing is the misconception i don't
014know how anybody else feels but i know that i'm not an indian and i was always raised to be proud that we're not indians you know columbus thought he landed in india and that's why he convinced and called us indians um some people might be okay with that but for majority of us we're not and not one individual speaks for an entire nation i certainly do not speak for all three thousand tribal citizens and you can learn a lot about a nation by how they treat their traditional people and their cultural people no matter who gets up here today and prides themself in how traditional and cultural they might be you can learn a lot about a nation by how they treat their elders and that's why i let one of our elders go first
015and besides your elders is your youth none of us here you know we've all lived and gone through school and have higher education and it's all about the young people you know we get offended every time halloween comes around because you see people with you know headdresses and everything else just to give a little bit of knowledge and background i attended barnsville high school and was home of the red raiders my father told me i could always try out for the sports team but i could never play for them until they got rid of their ridiculous logo now they recently got rid of their mascot and turned it into the right one all right hi everyone i think there is a delay so um okay just bear with me please but my name is shauna
016newcomb and i am a member of the mashfi wampanoag tribe i appreciate you giving me the floor or the screen tonight while i am happy to be able to speak and am truly humbled to have been invited i must say that my voice here tonight will only echo that whose should be the loudest which in is in my opinion the picasso council member megan running dear pages well yes i am a member of the federally recognized mashup wampanoag tribe the land you are currently standing on is not wampanoag territory it's actually cassette ancestral territory but to show my intertribal solidarity i am happy to lend my warranted opinion and that is that all native american mascots including your dartmouth indian mascot should be retired because number one it does not bring honor to indigenous people
017like you just heard from chairman whedon just the term indian itself is a misrepresentation of indigenous peoples back in 1492 columbus mistakenly thought he found a shortcut to india but he actually landed in the bahamas he then inaccurately labeled the aboriginals indians and it's just a constant reminder of the colonization and the assimilation native americans were forced to accept i'm also a middle school teacher so i'm going to come at you you know tonight with with uh my my major talking points my second point is that native mascots actually mocks indigenous culture each feather that your mascot is seen wearing had to have been earned in an act of bravery i will repeat that those feathers have to have been earned to see your students and sports fans freely wearing those feathers on their hats
018sports equipment or other school gear just diminishes the importance and pride behind those feathers bringing great shame and dishonor to our native ancestral heritages and number three your mascot perpetuates indigenous stereotypes now here is where i'd like to insert my own personal experience because like you've heard we are storytellers and so that's how we like to tell stories um you know to pass on to the next generation i am a proud sixth grade science and social studies teacher at the hanover middle school located on the south shore of massachusetts when i first started teaching there their mascot was the hanover indian keep that in mind okay now the first day of school is arguably one of my favorite days of the school year because i get to meet and get to know all of my
019new students and share a little bit about myself and of course i usually start with uh i'm mashp wampanog and their faces blank you know like native american nothing i can usually get some students to catch on when i have to resort to saying you know like disney's pocahontas telling you this is the truth every year the first day of school meanwhile their mascot is the indian they've since decided to change their mascot so just let's let's think about that why were my students not equating my native american heritage with their mascot i'll tell you why because i didn't look like their mascot i didn't have feathers in my hair like your mascot does i don't have war paint on my face like your mascot does therefore i must not be what that caricature is
020or i must not be that native american do the descendants of pilgrims let me ask you do they still wear big boots buckle belts and bucket hats no just like them right just like them we've also evolved over time no we are doctors we wear lab coats we are teachers right we can wear suits we don't have to look the same way as our ancestors did there are times and places where we do these images these mascots are dangerous and there's lots of scientific evidence that echoes that the american psychological association alone suggests that native american students are eight times more likely to commit suicide compared to the other students of any other race in this country now i'm not saying that native american mascots are the sole reason for that reality but it certainly
021doesn't help with their self-esteem i'd also like to speak to your intricate mission statement which is to provide a quality education for all learners well what kind of quality could that possibly be if you're already doing a disservice to your students by perpetuating the stereotype that all native americans look like your current logo even the national football league has acknowledged the detrimental effects of native mascots and have led major rebranding changes several schools across the country let alone right here in mass have also chosen to stand on the right side of history that directly impacts tomorrow's leaders my question to you tonight is what kind of example do you want to set for your students for your children into any native american student sitting in your classroom thank you yeah i just want to echo
022that the national congress of the american indians has taken a stance on native american mascots and i also serve in a capacity as an elected official for the town of mashpee i serve on the school committee and mashpee's doing a great work with intricating the language and the culture we provide wampanoag language to our middle school and high school students we provide cultural education to them we read a land acknowledgement statement before every school committee meeting that we do have i think that if the you know the town and the board wants to keep it um i think there are things that you guys can do i know that the kiowa tribe they're having an issue with one of the schools that are named after the tribe and they don't really have an issue with
023it as long as they do right by them and you guys provide cultural education and so on and so forth so i just want to leave you guys with some of our thoughts and just let you know that not one group speaks for an entire nation we are multiple uh tribes within a nation um and also the native american center for uh in boston nacab they're an organization they're not really an entity or tribal entity so i'm not sure what they might say to you guys but i think it's important if you want meaningful consultation i encourage you to take this trip on the road go visit the tribal members in aquina and mashpee and so on and so forth and really hear from the elders in the community and that's all i wanted to
024really tell you so catawbatosh thank you thank you does anybody have any questions representers i i appreciate the chair making the trip down here and taking the time to speak with us this evening as well as miss newcombe thank you very much we appreciate it just thank you thank you all right so again uh following the order established on the agenda next we'll ask the pocasset wampanoag to come speak and i know that megan running dear page is here to speak madam chair yeah if i could also ask after the speaker i do have a letter here on behalf of the poconoco nation that i'd like to read and put into the record sure i have letters from other nations if we're going to do that i i would ask for the same privilege then
025that's fine go ahead megan good evening committee members my name is megan running dear page i am councilwoman from the picasso at wampanoag tribe i stood before some of you in 2019 and here i am again tonight historically picasso territory went from taunton all the way through to little compton which included old dartmouth present day we hold reservation land in fall river mass that boarded into dartmouth on its east side as a tribe with past and present ties to dartmouth we the cassette are asking that the dartmouth indian logo be removed it is our duty to represent our ancestors to walk this land i stand here with their strength and contin and will continue to do so for us this is about so much more than a logo or mascot it's used to dartmouth high
026school is to symbolize the strength of the sports teams the warrior strength we feel the green indian head doesn't represent who we are what we have been through and the challenges indigenous communities still face such as homelessness hunger and substance abuse native people have longed for a day where we are no longer paraded around like mythical creatures savages and aggressive warriors we are proud people with families of faith language and community we are still here and we matter i want to make one thing clear this isn't about politics it's not about woke culture it's not about dividing the native community it's about how the logo makes the people it is supposed to honor and respect feel it doesn't make the majority of us feel that way at face value people might say the green indian
027head doesn't look offensive and others would agree but what people don't know is what the green indian head represents to the native people who have suffered for hundreds of years at the hands of colonizers it's still happening today i ask you not to vote out of fear let your conscience be your guide this is a moral issue and it should be treated as such stolen lands genocide ethnic cleansing slavery forced relocation sanitizing our history are some of the words that come to mind when i think about what native americans have endured for over 400 years old wounds in new run deep many reaching back into generations the only people that should have a say on this matter are natives current research shows that native mascots lead to lowered self-esteem lowered community worth and increase in
028negative feelings for native american students research also suggests that indian mascot supporters engage in stereotypical attacks allege that anti-mascot people are overly sensitive and deny that native people experience racism the dartmouth high school handbook says in quote in recognition of the native american heritage of the south coast of mass and out of respect for the original settlers of this area the dartmouth school committee has adopted the dartmouth indian logo as the symbol according to the handbook dartmouth schools shall be responsible for educating dartmouth students on the history and important role that the natives played in dartmouth is this being taught in 2019 we suspected it wasn't and we still suspect it isn't today a recent letter in dartmouth we confirmed our statistic our suspicions a 2020 dartmouth high school graduate stated that he never learned
029about the wampanoags until the logo became controversial he stated i was only exposed to the mascot in connection to the white people wearing the uniforms people hold on to the tradition of the nato native logo of bleeding green smearing more paint on their faces some traditions are meant to be broken they were instituted by non-native people with no thought about what the majority of indigenous voices in the area felt about it i will leave you with a direct quote from a quote from a tribal member for any person place or thing to symbolize my color my blood my ancestry in such a form is insulting stop disrespecting the native thank you all right so mr oliver has indicated he would like to read something into the record go ahead please thank you madam chair i'd
030like to enter this letter into on to the record uh from the council of clan chiefs picasso wampanoag tribe of the poconoke nation to this honorable board the picassot wampanoag tribe of the po poconoco nation shall not take part in any process that eliminates all native voices the issue of the dartmouth mass mascot bill currently under open meeting status is a very important subject to all it has drawn much attention over the years and has been a very painful and important matter the council of chiefs has not made any statements to this matter before discussion to the public the the picasset wampanoag tribe of mass in rhode island is not in any way shape or form connected to our traditional council a tribal structure we acknowledge them as brother and sister picassets and they certainly
031have their voice we however have taken the time to speak with an aquino wampanoag tribal member who has who has been an integral part of this important matter we discussed the factor of this emblem being made by an aquino tribal member years ago as a revamped more specific representation of eastern tribes the very question is should we erase all presence of native peoples in an effort to stop discrimination or have some resemblance of properly displayed native presence the bill h 581 massachusetts legislation would stop all mascots we feel the real question here is why there is not sufficient dialogue between the community and the local tribes not just a fifteen minute statement we have been in discussion with the band of chappaquiddick wampanoags whom also reviewed the mascot issue the the decision of why the
032mascot should go is a very deep issue that requires much dialogue than this it is very hard to erase the design made by a fellow aquino wampanoag without starting a war between the feelings of all tribal people this is unequivocally the land of the pikasset people but we all share a common interest the picasso after a brief discussion do not want to go against a design of a fellow wampanoag we however feel there should be much more dialogue on this matter and a resolution to collectively let all local tribes say their peace let us make an effort to bring unity to this important issue council of clan chiefs mcassett wampanoag tribe of the pocanooka nation by chairman and vice chairman george spring buffalo spring daryl black eagle jameson justin singing beer lion robert wandering buffalo
033kelly dwayne ossiquin shepard thank you thank you are there any other questions or comments from the committee i will just note that i did receive requests to enter several letters into the record um i had not received authorization i didn't that we were going to do that so i just want to want to know um that there was a letter from cheryl tony hawley the song of the nip nipmuck nation um as humans living among the many communities in the commonwealth we would prefer to speak and reason with townspeople about the harmful effects of their school mascot fortunately our voices are not heard alma gordon white sky of the chappaquiddick wampanoag anytime a school sports team plays a game against the school with an offensive mascot they experience demoralizing racial prejudice native american mascots and
034sports are not educationally sound for native american and non-indigenous youth i received a letter from also from miss melissa harding ferretti chairwoman of the herring pond wampanoag tribe the fact that racist ideas about native peoples in massachusetts are deeply ingrained and are reflected in sports teams mascots should not have to be explained in 2020 especially since native activists and educators have worked so hard and for so long to educate other americans about this so those are letters that i received i want that reflected in the record as well um at this point the next um set of speakers does anybody have any other comments or questions we have two different groups from the equino wampanoag it's my understanding that mr carney is going to be speaking on behalf of equino wampanoag who would like to
035speak on behalf of the logo um is that you mr carney please uh uh uh welcome you disrespectfully request to go second if that's if that's okay that is that uh i believe that should be fine yeah absolutely uh i'm just looking mr gallashaw's behind us he's our tech person um is mr lopes here okay mr lopes uh is a member of the equino wampanoag and has asked to speak to the committee and i believe he will be appearing virtually soon just give us a second we're working out some technical issues here hello everyone thank you for having me this evening my name is brad lopes i am a quina wampanok and um i'm here to speak on behalf of myself as a member of our nation i'm also here to speak on behalf of
036the 50-plus tribal members who have signed my petition in favor of not supporting mascots images or symbols such as the dartmouth logo i would like to thank also the speakers beforehand including our brothers and sisters from mashpee and picasso as well and i'd like to share my story with you all this evening as a member of the wampanoag in aquina i have spent unfortunately part of my life away from our people but i have spent part of it in environments that are similar to dartmouth and other places as well i'm a public school teacher i spend a lot of time working with students i spend a lot of time working with educators i also do professional development for educators too however how i got to this place took me a while i was a graduate
037of skowhegan high school in skowhegan maine far away from my homeland however like dartmouth we were the scout vegan indians we also had a logo symbol whatever semantics you want to use to call it and this particular image was also historically accurate in some way shape or form however it didn't stop it from being misinterpreted misrepresented and used as a weapon it became weaponized over time my experience was that i became the dirty indian i became insulted i was bullied excessively by my non-native peers especially being one of the only non-white students in the school i was often subject to many taunts at particularly prep rallies such as war whooping which you see consistently still at kansas city chief games in the nfl despite its disgusting nature i was also privy to students asking me
038to be the mascot i am not an object i am a human being i am not a mascot i am not a symbol i am not a logo i breathe the same air as you all and i bleed the same blood however that did not change my experience in high school it just led to further torment i was asked to bring quote unquote my headdress to school so that kids could see it as shauna mentioned earlier not only is that a misappropriation misidentification as well but it is also a horrible misuse of native culture i am coming to you all today to also as a teacher think about the kids now this won't be every kid but there are many many tribal kids who will feel impacted by this whether they are attending dartmouth or
039not we will also have students as well and it may impact them negatively and there is behavior that non-tribal students may pick up that could also be seen as bullying intimidation and adding to stereotypes for example i remember vividly opportunities where other sports teams would actually burn our mascot and i remember seeing a native person hanging and being lit on fire and that has a powerful impact on you because that is you you see part of yourself in that process despite not being that object and also has a negative impact on educators right now across the country what we're seeing is a teacher shortage and problems with retaining quality educators and i mean high quality educators educators who use empathy and understand kids and their development across time and unfortunately having a native american logo
040such as that at dartmouth i believe would actually lead to a lack of bypoc teachers black indigenous people of color and i believe it would also struggle to retain these teachers if they do choose to be a dartmouth and i say that as a native teacher i believe it also has a negative impact on adults in the community because what these symbols sometimes do is they start to actually blend authentic aspects of communities together and they confuse them with symbols for example despite this being an object it has become confused with nostalgia with pride with identity and they reinforced stereotypes and we are not products we are not objects we are a living breathing culture of people we speak our own language and we have many of our own practical customs and ways that we've
041been practicing for thousands of years i would also encourage dartmouth not to move in the direction of keeping the logo because i fear it will damage your relations with other indigenous nations across massachusetts i believe that it's very important for schools to recognize whose land they're on and to develop authentic relationships with these people and i believe that earlier today brian whedon shared a great example of that with the masterpiece school i believe that mashfi offers a prime example for how to have an authentic relationship with indigenous people i would also encourage you to look to the state in which i currently reside which is maine yesterday was the anniversary of the three-year ban of mascots in the state of maine and the wabanaki people are still here they do not need a mascot to
042represent them they do not need a symbol they do not need an image they are still here and their culture and history are brought directly into the classroom because of ld291 which is a state law that requires schools to teach wabanaki history that is how you provide some sort of honor to native people some sort of respect as you will actually form authentic relationships and i believe that dartmouth has this ability and i would encourage dartmouth to do this you know despite the fact that throughout our history we may have been fierce fighters we were more than just fierce fighters and we should be known for that a mascot is sometimes judged by those around it or the symbols around it and they are often inspired on single stories and the single stories will only
043reinforce stereotypes also i would encourage you all to move away from any narratives that have to do with erasure because i feel that this is strongly a logical fallacy and if this is true a symbol is not the solution education is um it is something that i want you all to strongly strongly consider even today i worry that if dartmouth chooses to keep the indian logo it will simply be a pirate victory and it will come down eventually only because it is archaic most depictions of native people are in pre-19th century context if you look at the research that's what it suggests we are modern people and every symbol like this no matter where it comes from no matter where it originates from unfortunately reins uh reinforces the stereotype of the quote unquote dead indian
044that scholar thomas king quotes we saw it with the land of lakes butter changing their imagery and we've going to continue to see it you also notice uh referencing my my comment earlier about fierce warriors that in the u.s military there are often the use of native names tomahawk missiles an apache helicopter again these reinforce stereotypes we are much more than warriors as much as we are proud of that i would also like to encourage you as a member of the aquino wampanoag tribe to talk to more of our general membership our tribe has a diaspora being an island nation many of our youth are actually off island many of our youth cannot afford to live on the island and because of this we are spread all out all over new england there are some
045of us here there are some of us there i was born in new bedford and my parents planned to live in dartmouth unfortunately that plan did not work out for them and so i would encourage you strongly to listen to these other members including the 50 plus acquaintance members that i'm representing tonight as well i am not an elected official and i have worked hard to try to gain the trust and consent of the group that i am representing tonight and i would just like to encourage you all to do what's right and to move away from this so that you can be proud of your community and so that you can celebrate your community and we can celebrate it together um thank you for allowing me to talk tonight i appreciate this immensely thank
046you everyone thank you does anybody have any questions no that's good since he's no longer here so thank you all right so mr carney uh if you would like to join us um and i believe you have some other people that are going to be with you if you wouldn't mind introducing them as well thank you good evening my name is sean carney i am a proud member of the federally recognized aquino wampanoag tribe with me i have my uncle clyde andrews author of the logo i have my other uncle mark andrews a dhs graduate i have my mother naomi carney also a dhs graduate i have my grandmother our tribal elder and our matriarch edith andrews we the town matriarch also our family matriarch we also have billy montero we also have randall bear
047montero both dartmouth residents class of 80 for billy randall for bear so we're speaking today on behalf of ourselves and on behalf of the tribal members that agree with us on this issue before i start i would like to read a small statement into the record i believe you have received this letter uh dated march 8th members of this school committee we members of the federally recognized wampanoag tribe of gay hedona and all of dartmouth's tribal families compromising our proud residents alumni and current students fully support preserving the dartmouth indians name and symbol as you are well aware an iteration of the current logo was authored by fellow tribal member and dartmouth high school alumnus clyde andrews around 1974 his mother edith andrews was asked by gil gil madrigal director of music and the late
048carlin lynch the head football coach to redesign the then existing great plains indian symbol to reflect a more accurate depiction of eastern woodlands indians the dartmouth indian its symbolism its history and the pride behind it has unified our families for generations despite the battle cries of a few non-tribal voices in dartmouth as well as a few out-of-town organizations the symbol is not disrespectful disparaging or derogatory in any manner over the generations many of the undersigned students and thrived and continued to while attending dartmouth schools representing our town across the state the nation and in various capacities through scholastics sports and the music program unfortunately there are some including several members of the committee who are determined to erase the dartmouth indian at all costs the three-year process to erase the indians was deliberately exclusive exclusory
049from the onset from the creation of a cherry-picked now-defunct subcommittee demonstrating a complete lack of outreach for public comment and dissenting opinions to ignoring the sentiments of our tribal members who reside in dartmouth in addition certain school committee members have intentionally downplayed our federal recognition status a government-to-government relationship between our tribe and the united states with inherent rights of self-government and sovereignty we as tribal members and residents of dartmouth were not invited to be presenters at this tribal forum until the 11th hour we were only informed of our ability to present late last night after the school committee met further how tragic would it be to our dartmouth high students who are tribal members who are being stripped of their representative identity without ever being consulted they deserve a voice in this process staying true
050to this theme on july 13 your school committee chair shannon jenkins said we shouldn't ask an oppressed people if they feel comfortable with their oppression almost a year earlier on august 13 2020 she tweeted they're mad that i've pointed out our mascot is racist it's a lot easier to lol when the racists are mad at you this type of rhetoric has significantly polluted any school committee forums on this matter and it certainly demonstrates a lack of appreciation for the intelligence and sophistication of our tribal members who are thriving citizens across the state and country who include professions in law enforcement doctors teachers lawyers tradesmen scientists artists tribal leadership elected officials and great parents just to name a few we are not oppressed moreover the dartmouth indian is an honorable symbol not a mascot over the
051years the school department has respectfully utilized the symbol in a limited manner that demonstrates honor and pride for our people the symbol won't be found on the floor of your school hallways on the basketball courts or on any field of play or any location where it can be stepped on of course we understand that not all tribal members or tribes will agree on this issue just like any subset of people we have diverse opinions however the issues related to the indians name and symbol here are purely and uniquely a dartmouth issue these issues should be ultimately ultimately resolved by dartmouth's residents and alumni and the dartmouth indians name and symbol is unifying unifying respectful and pays homage to our indigenous history it should be reaffirmed honored and celebrated respectfully edith andrews clyde andrews sheryl andrews
052maltese mark andrews kyle andrews naomi carney wendy harwood megan harwood jeff martin william martin james martin mary martin both of whom are current dhs students courtney pacino lauren martin caitlin ants billy montero william montero ii marianne montero randall bear montero celeste ventura jacob ventura jeremy ventura jared walker and justin walker all members of our tribe to move on i would like to once again point out that the issue to us is not a mascot it's a logo it's symbolism it's imagery and once again it was designed by one of our own clyde andrews a member of our aquino wampanoag tribe we have significant differences here in dartmouth than what we've seen in cleveland in washington and in other areas of the country where you've had either derogatory names for the teams or caricature depictions of
053plains indians here we're not using a derogatory name now natives will agree on this will disagree on this across the board but the word indian on its face to myself and to those standing behind me and to those who sign this letter is not derogatory it's codified in our constitution it's codified by 25 usc which is a united states code which gives us our inherent rights and government-to-government relationship by getting rid of indian you might as well be getting rid of these rights secondly there is an overwhelming support for from the dartmouth aquina wampanoag that live in dartmouth for this logo those that are directly affected those that are who either grew up in the town went to school here or have a deep connection here the symbol and logo has united generations on athletic
054fields classrooms board band competitions and once again this is a uniquely dartmouth issue i would like to briefly respond to some of the comments made today i would like to briefly respond to shauna our our very eloquent sister from mashpee i do agree feathers were earned in active bravery but i will say that showing up to school competing with sportsmanship and giving it 100 in the classroom the athletic field the auditorium or elsewhere in the dartmouth community is an act of bravery i would also say that the approach uh by mr lopes is much too broad we cannot just get rid of all native imagery symbolism um some native imagery and symbolism that is far too overreaching we should be taking a tailored approach here looking at what what symbolisms and what imagery is or
055is not offensive and which we should also have articulable reasons of why things are or are not offensive i would say to the committee here in the case of the dartmouth indian you have a tastefully done historic representation of what the eastern indian eastern woodland indians looked like i haven't heard anyone yet pinpoint something about that logo that is either offensive defamatory or derogatory i would say that we would love as a tribe and or at least speaking for um the tribal members you see before you today here we would love to set up a partnership with dartmouth in order to better educate your students on what that logo represents and the people it represent we would love that community to uh tribal government relationship we would love to see that happen we would love
056to educate your students we would love you guys to do right by us and partner with us of course and we appreciate all of the you know we appreciate all of the efforts and all of the viewpoints that have happened here but once again getting rid of all native imagery is not the solution and i would also agree with mr lopes that the image on its own is not the solution but i can tell you definitively it's also not the problem i would like to invite uh our my grandmother edith andrews to say a few words on the logo as well good evening i'm also a town union member and um when we when we had hired gil maldrigo and i told him that the imagery of the indian was not of our area because
057it was indian and full headdress and so that's when he said well edith you tell me how it should be and so i said well we are the eastern woodland indians so i went home and i had my son clyde draw an image of the eastern woodland indian and that's how come that came about because colin lynch and gill madrigal agreed because that would be on everyone's uniform the logo that should be representing our people in this area so that's that's my story and i just hope that we can keep our symbolism there which is not a symbol but it's an icon because everybody's too eager to erase the indian because i think there's uh there's a pattern going on because right now everybody wants to think that they stepped on this land and there
058was no one because of the fact that we are called the people and because everyone has a nation nation's name and we are the wampanoag we have the narragansetts we have the mohegans we have many others and there is about 50 528 nations in this united states different tribal nations and it's very important for everybody to know and we all do have our differences but the one thing that we do agree that we love one another and if we didn't like people and didn't respect people the pilgrims would still wait be waiting to get on the land because if it wasn't for us to make them well because they were dying with the disease and everything so if if we were uh what they would call a wild people you people wouldn't be here so
059it's thankful to the uh the wampanoag people that helped the pilgrims survive that's my story thank you [Applause] thank you very much for your time thank you does anybody have any questions before mr carney leaves the podium thank you i i'd just like to set the record straight that um i apologize if the invitation was not extended to you until last evening on the 24th we set the date for this meeting and i asked my committee for help i emailed mr oliver on the 27th and asked him to reach out to the equina wampanoag so there was an attempt to reach out earlier i apologize if that was not communicated to you but we did sort of try to start that ball rolling and i believe uh dr gifford and miss genther um reached out
060to to the chair in early february i apologize if it was not conveyed to you i just want to make sure that there was not an attempt to uh exclude uh the tribe from presenting here and we we did make some attempts to reach out madam chair i would like i would like to just say thank you for uh for correcting that um for the record here thank you thank you mr oliver would you like to no i was just going to add that yes dr gifford and kate had reached out and i was included on it and to chairwoman cheryl andrews maltese and i don't think that we ever received any correspondence we did she did respond and there's some dialogue back and forth that there's i just want to make it clear that
061that was not an intentional uh slight and that we had tried to be in communication and apologies for for that not getting conveyed to you i appreciate that madam chair thank you thank you miss andrews but if you have something else to say please step up to the microphone because that our audience cannot hear we could bring it to her i don't yes i just feel that by now i should we have been listened to the quina too long it's a quina equina my apologies please because it's it was driving us insane back here thank you thank you thank you um all right so thank you for that our final presenter um is from the north american indian center of boston i believe he will be presenting virtually and it will take us just a
062second to get sean luke up on the uh hello thank you for joining us this evening please uh introduce yourself and uh uh go ahead let's make sure okay hello um thank you to dr jenkins thank you to the dartmouth school committee um i am uh calling in from unseated non-attack land here in western massachusetts my name is jean-luc perite i am the president of the north american indian center of boston we are massachusetts oldest urban indian center providing cultural and social services for the new england native american community for over 50 years and as a matter of the purpose for us being here as uh urban indian organization uh in 1976 by executive order number 126 massachusetts native americans signed by governor dukakis we then as the boston indian council was designated as the
063state's liaison for residents who were members of tribes who had historical government government relationships uh but are now outside of the border so thinking about massachusetts in terms of uh the bay colony uh and the province of massachusetts um this is a this is a difficult testimony to give um and i have no joy in my heart um saying these things but on july um in a letter to roger goodell the commissioner of the national football league a letter which was signed by north american indian center of boston and the united southern eastern tribes sovereignty protection fund demands were laid out for the washington football team to eliminate any and all imagery evocative of native american culture traditions and spirituality from their team franchise including the logo this includes the use of native terms feathers
064arrows or monikers that assume the presence of native american culture as well as any characterization of any physical attributes a ban all use of native imagery names slur names red face appropriation of native culture and spirituality as well as violence toward native peoples from the league and i cite this letter starting off because i am my i'm a member of a federally recognized tribe the tunica biloxi tribe of louisiana we are part as a tribe we are part of the board of directors for the united southern eastern tribes sovereignty and protection fund along with the federally recognized tribes of massachusetts i wanted to also talk about the authorship of the current iteration of the dartmouth high school logo as a matter of fact dating back to 1937 a highly resonant image was on the jerseys
065of teams from dartmouth college in new hampshire and it was actually in when native americans at dartmouth wrote out demands uh stating that we native american people affirm our belief that the united states is not a monolithic society but a plural pluralistic society whereas the historical function of dartmouth college has been to promote the myth of a melting pot to negate diverse beliefs we native americans at dartmouth unequivocally declare that the indian symbol is a mythical creation of a non-indian culture and in no manner reflects the basic philosophies of native american peoples and as such cannot exist within an institution ostensibly committed to the education of native americans uh and others and again they uh going back 50 years we have the same sorts of demands athletic teams shall refrain from the use of indian
066as a mascot references to athletic teams as the dartmouth indians or any illusion thereof must cease dartmouth cheerleaders bands students and alumni must cease the use of wahuwa in the dartmouth on the war path cheers i wanted to also call into mind because we're talking about um you know either either removing the symbol but then also in a recent article clyde andrews said that if the if the logo was to be removed that the expansion of native american history within curriculum uh would be a reasonable solution um and i and i agree with them very much so and i would want to say also that you know when we talk about dartmouth indians uh we're talking about uh very specific people that lived on on land that was proximate to where dartmouth high school is
067settlements along the westport river going back to the 1861 earl report having no common lands or common fund these indians have escaped the special paternal care and guardianship of the state and relying on their exertions and mingling with the general community than those on the plantations above uh are above all uh average uh indians in civilization general intelligence and the enjoyment of the comforts and privileges of social life but more so than than the people the land um itself um you know thinking about the actual people that were there doing during those times thinking about spiritual leaders such as nehemiah abel conducting ceremony where people from all over the south coast would come together and and join in ceremony at least once a year thinking about people that are important to all of our communities
068people such as paul cuffey who is who is described as being both tall and stout spoke good english and dressed in that quaker style that is uh he adorned a drab colored suit with a large flapped hat he's a tall poor person well-formed and athletic but beyond all of these descriptions he is native american and african and so i look at a symbol like what the dartmouth indians logo is and i wonder what we are when we reduce ourselves to this visual language who is actually included and who is actually a race what is the history that we are uplifting and how can we as a black indigenous and people of color uh move forward uh within these public school systems so i just leave my comments at that thank you very much tikach thank
069you so does anybody have any questions or comments all right so hearing none um that brings us to the end of our agenda for the evening there is if there are other matters that have not been anticipated at the time of the agenda posting i think i'm going to start with the equality and diversity subcommittee and then turn to so i will ask the quality and diversity subcommittee if you have any comments questions input can very quickly go ahead and step up to the microphone introduce yourself yeah i'm mark andrews i graduated 1981 and i just want to say that there's a lot of people here from dartmouth that grew up in dartmouth and i'm sure they're in the auditorium now that this image you know i call it an emblem i don't call it
070a mascot um and the emblem has traveled to the rose bowl parade with the dartmouth high school band internationally up through canada it's been at you know super bowls on you know with uh football players now we just we find it as a very honorable you know uh sense of homage pay to the original uh residents of this land and now that it's called dartmouth and that it's shared with everybody you know everybody in dartmouth has that sort of connection and they're proud of it whether they be portuguese italian irish i grew up with all ethnicities you know and um we all put the helmet on with the lo with with the image on the helmet and you know and when we think back of it when we think back of our high school days
071we think of colin lynch we think of bob simmons al porter all these people who shaped us as individuals to go out and venture into the world and give it our best so um you know i mean i want to see the the logo um or emblem be retained so that's it it represents a lot to people who grew up here and have moved on and sort of have that same dartmouth high spirit wherever life takes them thank you all right so um is there anything that and that other members of the equality and the diversity subcommittee would like to bring up or talk about right now all right so i will remind people on the committee that if you that if you are interested in continuing on the committee to email ms genther let's
072say by the end of this week if you can do that if you'd like to continue and i will return to the school committee and ask if there are comments questions other matters they might mr oliver thank you dr jenkins and thank you to all the uh tribes that came out this evening to speak um i i deeply appreciate it i appreciate all of you being here on the diversity and equality committee and thank you to dr jenkins dr gifford and everyone at the school department for putting this night together i think it's deeply important to this community and deeply important to to these committees as well that we we finally had a chance to hear from tribal members across this area and across the region with that said i think it's really important that
073we continue these conversations if all of you on the diverse inequality committee would like to come back and be reappointed you know at some point i think it's important that we we hear from all of us together before any type of vote is taken in addition to after the town's non-binding referendum takes place but before that previous to that i think it's equally important that we continue to have these conversations um and i i personally would like to reach out and have some conversations with with some of the uh the tribes that spoke this evening um it's very clear to me that the aquino wampanoags for that were dartmouth high school alumni dartmouth alumni that are present this evening that signed off in this letter have a have a very big stake in this and
074i think it's important that we continue to listen to them um and continue to listen to their brothers and sisters and other tribes um so i would just you know i would just ask that we continue to have these conversations um and continue this dialogue i know there's a public forum um coming up next is the next week two weeks two weeks two weeks where the um the uh citizens of dartmouth will be given the opportunity to speak and so i think that's deeply is equally important as well so um thank you very much thank you for your time thank you any other comments just you know thank you to everyone who's who's here and has spoken much appreciated learned a lot thank you all right go ahead and miss wait no i would just
075say again like you know i also want to echo my colleague and say you know thank you to everyone who came i think we had a quite a diversity of opinion um i do think that it's important as we continue in this conversation we do continue to work together we certainly have two different issues one is you know around the continuance of the logo and the name and then there's a separate issue about really engaging and thoughtful education and that's a really i think you know if you listen to all the groups that came up in all the nations that is a continuing theme that you know we really need to honor that relationship and continue that relationship so you know what a decision is made around this one component continuance of that relationship and
076really going through an honest um thoughtful exploration of our history which may be you know the good bad the ugly i think is a really really important thing that we progress together so you know to your point mr oliver i really hope that we can continue those relationships and um you know this is meaningful and i i again i think we need to i hope we continue to do more so thank you everyone yeah i would i would agree with miss waite um and i'm particularly eager uh to talk to uh chair whedon about uh the materials that they've used with the with the mashpee school district um i'd like to see us develop some similar sorts of things for our school district um obviously it's going to be different because of we're in a
077different place but um i think it's a very important point that regardless of the decision about the logo or that that that second issue not be dropped and that we continue to move the ball forward um on that issue i think it's important and i know you've been looking into sort of where we are doing this and i think we're all i think we may be in disagreement on issue number one but i think it's safe to say that we're all in agreement on issue number two um that we want to continue moving forward with that and doing better on that issue samuel do you have anything you want dan yeah no i mean the only thing i was going to add my colleague miss wait um really articulated well and the theme that i
078heard throughout it was an honor to hear from everyone uh and um it was a good evening i'm really appreciative of the opportunity to hear from everyone and uh you know that common theme and exploring what mashpee has done in terms of really ingraining that into their curriculum and and digging deep into you know um that piece of it but i just butchered what um mary how mary eloquently articulated i agree i have my days thank you so um if there's no further discussion or comment i will just note that our the next meeting of the school committee is i'm going to get this wrong and i know mr news will correct me if i'm wrong the 21st and on the 21st we will have a discussion about the this committee um we are also
079having public comment on uh the 22nd two weeks from tonight that will be in the auditorium i will also say to the committee regardless of the decision that we make on uh the 21st that forum is open to all members of the public um so i will invite you to attend that regardless as well as other what we decide on the 21st um as well as as other members of the community um that having been said um i think i have to i need a motion to adjourn from the from everyone i can do it thank you mr hands so i will entertain a motion to adjourn the joint session of the dartmouth school committee and the equality and diversity subcommittee all right i have a motion by mr nunes a second by mr oliver
080we all get to vote on this all in favor aye aye opposed abstentions hearing none um thank you everyone thank you for our speakers we deeply appreciate you coming have a good evening thank you you