Odessa-Montour drops Native American school mascot name, sparked by Seneca Nation feedback
The Odessa-Montour Central School District has a new mascot for its athletic teams, a decision spurred by conversations between school leaders and members of the Seneca Nation of Indians.
The Schuyler County school has dropped its longstanding Indians nickname and is becoming the Grizzlies. Students in the school voted overwhelmingly in support of their new mascot earlier this year, with Wolfpack the second choice.
The O-M Board of Education gave Superintendent Chris Wood approval to go forward with the new mascot during its July 14 meeting. The change will become official with passage of a resolution during the next board meeting July 28.
Odessa-Montour's combined teams with Watkins Glen will be known as the Schuyler Storm, replacing the Seneca Indians nickname used since they merged football in 2015. The schools are also combined in baseball, wrestling and swimming. The new nickname took into consideration input from students at both schools.
A bill introduced last year by State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi (D-Westchester County/Bronx) would ban the use of Native American mascots, logos and names in public schools starting in 2024. It has not been voted on yet. Major-league franchises Washington Commanders of the NFL and Major League Baseball's Cleveland Guardians changed mascots in the last year.
According to a National Congress of American Indians database, 61 other schools nationally have dropped Native American nicknames this year. In New York, Section 5's Waterloo went from Indians to Tigers in June.
"When I got (the Seneca Nation) take on it, it’s like, all right, we’re not doing what half the population said we were doing, which is honoring these guys," said Chris Wood, Odessa-Montour Superintendent. "You’re not honoring us, so now we have a problem. Now we know we’re not doing what we thought we were doing. We can bury our heads in the sand and do the wrong thing or we can do the right thing and have this conversation with kids."
Greg Gavich is Odessa-Montour's athletic manager, girls varsity basketball coach, golf coach and a global studies teacher. He was part of the process.
"Personally, I feel better about us organically doing this rather than somewhere down the road getting some sort of directive from politicians or whoever to say, 'All right, you've got to change,'" said Gavich, who like Wood is an O-M alum.
Watkins Glen's nickname, the Senecas, is not problematic, Seneca Nation spokesman Joe Stahlman said previously. Watkins Glen High School is a few miles from Seneca Lake.
O-M is the first school in Section 4 to change its Native American nickname since Seneca Nation made its view public. Remaining schools in the Interscholastic Athletic Conference with Indians as a mascot are Candor and Groton. Elsewhere in the IAC, Southern Cayuga's mascot is the Chiefs.
Seneca Nation feedback an eye-opener
In August of 2020, Stahlman denounced the use of Native American mascots in an email to the Elmira Star-Gazette and USA TODAY Network, writing, "Seneca Nation views the use of Native American names, references and imagery for the logos and mascots of schools and their sports teams as blatantly offensive to the Seneca Nation and has no place in a multicultural society that values diversity."
Read our story: Seneca Nation says schools should stop using Native American mascots
That month, Wood invited representatives of Seneca Nation to visit the district and offer feedback on the mascot and Native American imagery within the schools. Stahlman joined Seneca Nation representatives Kerry John and Jason Corwin in sharing insight that ended up being the impetus behind O-M's decision to ditch the Native American mascot it had used for more than 50 years. Corwin visited the school in October of 2020 and was invited to take photos of O-M's Native American imagery during a tour.
Their feedback?
"One, you're not honoring us by the depictions you have," Wood said of the message back. "First and foremost, every one of the things you see has a full head dress. That is not accurate to our Seneca tribe. Historically that's inaccurate."
Wood was asked O-M's racial breakdown and he responded the school was 92 to 96% white, 3 to 4% Black and 1% other. He was asked why O-M had a mascot that didn't accurately reflect the school's makeup. A mock-up of a mascot called the Invaders with a white person in a pilgrim hat was shown to Wood to provide perspective on why Native American mascots are viewed as offensive.
"It was eye-opening," Wood said.
He added of what he was told, "Why don't you call yourself the Asians or why don't you call yourself the Africans or the Hispanics? ... Indian is not an endearing term to us. You're not honoring us and you're not really depicting what you have here."
The feedback was relayed to students.
"A couple of them said, 'Are we really honoring people who say they're not being honored?' " Gavich said. "I think that opened a lot of their eyes about the process and the need to do it."
Why the Grizzlies?
For those inclined to point out to O-M officials that grizzly bears are not native to New York state, they're well aware. But Wood said it was vital to get student feedback on the nickname and the two options chosen by a student committee were Grizzlies and Wolfpack.
"We have to get their buy-in because this is not the name that's going across my chest when I go and play," Wood said. "When I go to an event, I'm no longer representing us, the kids are. What do they want to be represented by? And when we educated the kids after we brought the Seneca nation in, they understood."
One of the criteria was to have a nickname that wasn't well worn and was unique within the IAC. Gavich pointed out there was nothing specific to the region that stood out as a mascot option. Suggestions such as Loggers to represent the area's lumber history or the Aggies to represent its agriculture history don't scream 2022. Other options for the combined O-M/Watkins Glen teams were Serpents, Storm and Rapids.
A survey was sent to the 270 Odessa-Montour students in grades 7-12 and 75% of the 132 respondents chose Grizzlies as their preferred mascot. One student pointed out the district's BC Cate Elementary School in Montour Falls has a teddy bear as a reading mascot, so Grizzlies fit a theme of going from a teddy bear as youngsters to a grizzly in high school.
"It came down to ferocious animal and cuddly, friendly animal," Gavich said. "They wanted something that was a little more fierce."
What's next?
Wood is working with a graphic designer to come up with a new logo and fonts to go with the new mascot. He and Watkins Glen School District Superintendent Kai D'Alleva are working with a graphic designer for a logo for the Schuyler Storm teams.
In conjunction with the mascot switch, Odessa-Montour is adding black to its official school colors of maroon and white. Uniforms in recent seasons have been designed toward the possibility of a change and the only team that has the old mascot represented on the current jersey is softball. Their uniforms will be replaced by time spring rolls around.
Gavich said the new logo and mascot could be represented during the winter sports season. He said it's possible O-M Grizzlies T-shirts will be available in the fall.
Wood sought feedback from alumni and community members via the school's website before the change was made and received seven responses.
"There’s going to be skepticism, there’s going to be people who are upset," he said. "There’s been accusations that us changing this is tied to state aid. Nowhere have I seen that. There’s no knowledgeable funding to our mascot that I know of. It’s just doing the right thing. Not everybody wants to hear that."
The new mascot offers a level of excitement, Wood said, particularly with the upgrades being made at the school.
"I think the rebranding is going to be fun because it’s going to be unique, it’s going to be different, something nobody in the area ever has had," Gavich said.
His summer league basketball team has already come up with a chant you could see at future high school games: "Who are we? O-M-G's."
"It has a nice little ring to it. They kind of like that," Gavich said.
Follow Andrew Legare on Twitter: @SGAndrewLegare. You can also reach him at alegare@gannett.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: Odessa-Montour mascot name changed after Seneca Nation feedback
