I am an alum of the CMHS class of 2007 and former captain of the CMHS Women’s track and cross country teams. I am proud of my school, but I am not “proud to be an Indian.” I am not proud that my peers and I appropriated another culture each time we donned face paint and feathers in the name of school pride, without a clear understanding of the cultures we were representing. I am not proud that we failed to recognize that using a race of people as a mascot, especially when less than 1% of our student body represent that race, was deeply problematic.

I am told that CMHS has been granted permission to use the Indian mascot, although recollection of said permission is hazy (some have told me that the permission comes from the Cheyenne Indians, others the Ute Indians, and others the Colorado nonprofit, One Nation). If this is true, it’s certainly a step further than the majority of Colorado schools have gone to “honor” Native Americans through use of a mascot in their name. Yet regardless of whether or not a particular group of Native Americans deem it acceptable for our school to use the mascot, the fact of the matter is that Colorado Springs residents who are Native Americans do find the mascot offensive, as this interview filmed at CMHS earlier this year demonstrates.

Furthermore, the image of a school dominated by white students impersonating a Native American mascot cuts to the heart of the problem that many Native Americans have with these types of mascots. In the words of one of the interviewees, “it’s only been white voices telling us what we should or should not be honored by.”

It’s time for Cheyenne Mountain to adopt a mascot that better honors the high school’s assertion that “every person has worth and is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect.” Fortunately, HBO TV host John Oliver has kindly offered to mail our school the one and only Space Gecko costume, saving it school the cost of procuring it’s own mascot. The Space Gecko mascot symbolizes many CMHS values, including its respect for nature, adventurous spirit, and academic excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields. I have already established relationships with local gecko tribes that would be happy to “bless” this mascot if adopted – so it’s a win-win.

Image Credit: YouTube/Chad Skinner (Fox 21)