Syracuse, N.Y. -- Lana Smith is a Native American of the Mi’kmaq , the first peoples of Nova Scotia. Her mother speaks their native language. Until Smith was 15 years old, she lived on the Mi’Kmaq reservation.

She’s proud of her heritage and so, she says, is her son, Damon Holmes, 7, a second-grader at Syracuse’s Dr. Weeks Elementary School.

Damon came home one day toward the end of last school year upset about a game he had to play in gym class, Smith said.

She said Damon described a game called “cowboys and Indians” in which an instructor split the class into two groups and told them to sneak up on each other and chase each other around. Damon was especially bothered when the kids put their hands against their mouths and chanted, his mom said. In her tradition, and for her son, chanting is associated with prayer, she said.

“That is a mocking of our culture,” Smith said.

She said she called the school and the principal promised her the game would be stopped.

But Thursday morning, Damon said he didn’t want to go to school because they were playing that game again, Smith said. He told her the same teacher who had organized the game last year was now calling it “cowboys and Native Americans.” He told his mom he asked to sit the game out and his teacher made him play.

“To change it to ‘Native Americans’ is laughable. Just laughable,” Smith said.

She called the school again and talked with district staff, including the vice principal and principal. They said they spoke with the teacher and that a more formal meeting would take place, Smith said.

District spokesman Michael Henesey said Friday that a game called “Cowboys and Native Americans” was being played at the school and it should not have been. The district is investigating and the game will no longer be played, Henesey said.

“It certainly is not part of the school district’s educational curriculum. Nor is it something that the school district endorses,” he said.

Henesey said Debra Schoening, district executive director of elementary education, talked a couple of weeks ago to the supervisor of Native American programs about providing cultural sensitivity training to district staff.

The diverse Syracuse school district’s enrollment is 1 percent Native American or Alaskan native, out of roughly 19,960 students, according to the district web site. Central New York is the home of the Haudenosaunee peoples, including the Onondaga Nation, located just south of Syracuse.

Smith said school administrators told her the “Cowboys and Native Americans” game is supposed to teach students teamwork and cooperation. She said she finds it laughable to expect children to learn teamwork and cooperation from a game that, in her estimation, denigrates Native Americans and harks back to the history of their colonization and subjugation.

Playing this game teaches children to continue to subjugate Native Americans, Smith said. She wants a written apology and she wants other parents notified about what happened because they have an obligation to make sure their children are taught to respect other cultures, Smith said.

“I’m asking for an awareness, an awareness of my culture. Awareness and respect for all cultures for these kids, for these children,” she said.

Contact Maureen Nolan at 470-2185, mnolan@syracuse.com or @MaureenNolanPS