Mascots
Explore the histories of Native mascots in New England by selecting from the lists below.
Connecticut
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Location: Derby, CT.
Derby High School’s “Red Raiders” branding is paired with imagery of an arrowhead and feathers. The school newspaper is called “The Raider Press.”
The “Red Raider” mascot was formally established at Derby High School in 1936, but there was Native imagery recorded in the school yearbook starting in 1905. Before the “Red Raider” name, the school’s football team was known as the “Crimsons.”
In 2021, a Connecticut bill passed that barred towns that use Native nicknames or logos without tribal consent from receiving state funding that comes from the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, respectively. Because of this, Derby High School stood to lose $207,304 in state funding for the 2022-23 academic year.
In March 2022, the Schagticoke Tribal Nation passed a resolution in support of Derby’s use of the nickname and imagery, allowing it to be eligible to receive funding from the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan fund. The Schagticoke Tribal Nation used the argument that the imagery sustains Native culture and history.
Find Derby Public School’s website here, and links to the school’s imagery here and here.
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Location: Killingly, CT
In 2014, the school board began discussing a potential change to the “Redmen” name, but efforts faded. In 2019, the conversation caught traction again, which sparked a lot of conversations within the community, with many in favor of keeping the mascot and many in favor of removing it.
In October 2019, the students voted to select the Red Hawks as their new mascot by a majority of 80%.
By January 9, 2020, though, the Board of Education voted to reinstate the “Redmen” name with a redesigned logo.
In 2021, a Connecticut bill passed that barred towns that use Native nicknames or logos without tribal consent from receiving state funding that comes from the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, respectively. Because of this, Killingly High School stood to lose $94,184 in state funding for the 2022-23 academic year.
Find Killingly Public School’s website here, and a link to the school’s imagery here.
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Location: Woodbury, CT.
Nonnewaug High School’s nickname is the “Chiefs,” and they use an arrowhead and feathers in their branding.
In 2021, a Connecticut bill passed that barred towns that use Native nicknames or logos without tribal consent from receiving state funding that comes from the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, respectively. Because of this, Nonnewaug High School stood to lose $4,125 in funding for the 2022-23 academic year anyway.
Find Nonnewaug High School’s website here, and links to the school’s imagery here, here, and here.
Sources here and here.
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Location: Windsor, CT.
Windsor High School uses the “Warriors” nickname with branding including an arrowhead and feathers. The high school’s school newspaper is called “The Tomahawk,” and there is a school athletics award using the word “tomahawk” in the title as well.
Windsor students also reported that they were given purple slips of paper as classroom rewards that they referred to as “wampum” that they could use at the end of the year to exchange for small prizes. This stems from and perpetuates a common misconception that was originally made by settlers that wampum was a currency. Wampum was used by Eastern Woodlands people for significant ornamental, ceremonial, and diplomatic purposes.
In 2021, a Connecticut bill passed that barred towns that use Native nicknames or logos without tribal consent from receiving state funding that comes from the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, respectively. Windsor High School was not previously allotted money from that fund for the 2022-23 academic year, though.
Find Windsor High School’s website here, and links to the school’s imagery here and here.
Source here.
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Furthermore, six Connecticut high schools continue to use the name “Warriors” but without Native imagery anymore. Norwich Tech, Valley Regional, Canton, Wamogo, Watertown, and Wilton are among these.
Many high schools that had Native mascots have changed their mascots entirely, including the Newtown Nighthawks, Northwest Catholic Lions, Manchester Red Hawks, RHAM Raptors, Glastonbury Guardians, Guildford Grizzlies, Newington Nor’easters, Farmington River Hawks, North Haven Nighthawks, Wilcox Tech Wildcats, Conard Red Wolves, Hall Titans, and Montville Wolves.
Vermont
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Location: Chester, VT.
On October 22, 2021, the Green Mountain Unified School district voted 7-2 to eliminate the school mascot’s Indian head iconography but decided to keep the “Chieftains” name.
The name was later removed at a school board meeting in January 2023, and reinstated in February 2023. On March 16th, 2023, the school board held another meeting to talk about a formal complaint by the Rutland area NAACP and Gedakina to revisit the decision and decide whether to support or retire the name. The board voted 6-5 to keep the “Chieftains” name, stating that it did not violate the “Nondiscriminatory Mascots and School Branding” policy.
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As of May 31st, 2022, the state of Vermont passed Act 152, which is an act that banned discriminatory school branding, including any branding based on stereotypes or representations of “race, creed, color, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity,” or any branding “associated with the repression of others.” This act took effect on July 1, 2022.
Source: here.
Massachusetts
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Location: Agawam, MA
Agawam High School students have been known to wear headdresses and use the “tomahawk chop” gesture at athletic events.
On September 8, 2020, the Agawam Town Council met to address concerns about the mascot and voted to keep it, citing that the “Brownies” nickname had nothing to do with skin color, but rather, was a reference to the school colors, which are brown and orange, and to a former coach whose last name was Brown. Those who are in favor of removing the mascot, however, state that there are no records of a coach Brown ever having worked at Agawam High School.
Find a link to the petition here.
Find Agawam High School’s website here, and links to the school’s imagery here and here.
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Location: Braintree, MA
“Wamps” is a nickname referring to the Wampanoag people. It was decided on August 10, 2020, that all Native imagery was to be removed from Braintree High School, but the “Wamps” name has not been removed. There are reports of students dressing up in Native costumes and face paint and using “chants” at school and at athletic events.
Find a link to the petition here.
Find a link to Braintree High School’s website here.
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Location: Lawrence, MA
The school’s original campus was at a Knights of Columbus building but relocated to its own campus in the 1930s. The school mascot was the “Red Raiders” until 1996. In 2000, the school transitioned to the use of the nickname “Raiders.”
Find Central Catholic High School’s website here, and links to the school’s imagery here.
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Location: South Dartmouth, MA
The “Indians” mascot has been in place since the 1960s and was redesigned to become more accurate in the 1970s.
Despite the use of the “Indians” nickname, the school athletics handbook prohibits the use of Native headdresses or costumes, “tomahawk chop” gestures, or other stereotypical portrayals.
In 2019, the school committee heard public comments about the mascot but decided not to create a committee to review it. In July 2020, the local branch of the NAACP hosted a forum to discuss the “Indians” name and a possible call for a statewide ban on Native mascots. In August 2020, the school committee put together an Equality and Diversity Committee to review the mascot and other DEI concerns. Despite these efforts, the mascot remains active.
Find Dartmouth High School’s website here, and links to the school’s imagery here and here.
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Location: Lowell, MA
The “Red Raiders” name became popular in Lowell during the tenure of Ray Riddick, Lowell High School’s legendary football coach who worked there from 1947 to 1975. The original school colors were red and gray. Before they were known as the “Red Raiders,” they were called the “Riddick’s Raiders,” or the “Red and Gray.”
The school has, in recent years, mostly moved away from using Native imagery.
Find Lowell High School’s website here, the school’s athletics website here, and a link to the school’s imagery here.
Source here.
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Location: Boxford, MA
Masconomet Regional High School has been using the “Chieftains” name since the school’s founding in 1959.
As of 2017, the school district leaders supported retaining the “Chieftains” name. The school has two official logos, one with Masconomet standing among trees for the official letterhead, and one featuring the letter “M” inside of an arrowhead for athletics.
Find Masconomet Regional High School’s website here, and links to the school’s imagery here and here.
Source here.
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Location: Middleborough, MA
In 2019, the superintendent of the school said that there was nothing disrespectful or problematic about the “Sachem” mascot, and stressed that the way the school is represented should be a local matter.
Find a link to the petition here.
Find Middleborough High School’s website here, and a link to the school’s imagery here.
Source here.
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Location: Millis, MA
The “Mohawk” mascot was established in 1960.
Millis High School students have been known to attend rallies and athletic events with feathers in their hair and “war paint” on their faces.
The Millis school committee agreed in 2021 that changes in the representations they use were necessary, but kept the mascot in a 3-2 vote. However, they did agree 5-0 to remove Native images from the school.
Find a link to the petition here.
Find Millis High School’s website here, and links to the school’s imagery here and here.
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Location: North Brookfield, MA
North Brookfield High School has had the “Indian” mascot officially since 1960, but it was first used in 1956.
In December 2020, the school board voted to remove the mascot on the grounds that the mascot was harmful, culturally insensitive, and inaccurate.
In October 2021, though, there was a new school board and one member made a motion to rescind the previous vote and keep the mascot after a nonbinding vote of locals demonstrated a few hundred people wanted to keep the mascot.
Find North Brookfield High School’s website here, and links to the school’s imagery here and here.
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Location: Wakefield, MA
Wakefield Memorial High School has been using the “Warrior” nickname and logo since the 1890s. The most current iteration of the logo first appeared on the football team’s helmets in 1984.
Wakefield’s school committee voted in March 2021 to drop the Native imagery associated with their mascot but keep the “Warriors” name. However, in April 2021, local residents voted to keep the school’s logo by a vote of 2,911 to 2,337, and although it demonstrated split support for keeping the logo, the referendum was non-binding.
Find a link to the petition here.
Find Wakefield Memorial High School’s website here, and links to the school’s imagery here and here.
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A few Massachusetts high schools continue to use the name “Warriors” but without Native imagery anymore.
Furthermore, tribes in the state of Massachusetts that have called for the prohibition of Native mascots include the Chappaquiddick Tribe of the Wampanoag Nation, the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag, the Nipmuc Nation, and the Pocasset Wampanoag Tribe.
Rhode Island
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Location: North Scituate, RI.
Members of the Nipmuc tribe contacted the Rhode Island Commission on Prejudice and Bias to begin discussions on the Ponaganset High School mascot with the regional school committee. Chief Red Spirit of the Nipmuc Tribe said he would like to see the mascot removed.
In 2020, there was a movement to change the Chieftains name, which was denied by a school official. According to an online poll, most members of the town community were opposed to the name change, citing “tradition” and “pride,” and some even said the name is meant to represent “honor, valor, strength, [and] leadership.” The founder of the Providence Cultural Equity Initiative and Native activist, Raymond Watson, calls locals to question whether the name is really honorable, though, as Nipmuc chiefs were killed, enslaved, indentured, and forced onto reservations after their land was stolen. He also pointed out that the logo depicts a plains-style headdress and the suggestion of a beheaded Native chief, so these representations are not honorable, especially not to the local tribes.
Find links to the school’s imagery here.
Petition here.
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Location: Woonsocket, RI
In May 2001, the Woonsocket school board voted 3-2 to get rid of the “Redmen” mascot and nickname. As of 2022, though, the school still retains a logo depicting a Native person with bright red skin and a colorful, plains-style headdress.
Find a link to the petition here.
Find Woonsocket High School’s website here, and links to the school’s imagery here, here, and here.
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Furthermore, there is one Rhode Island high school that continues to use the name “Warriors” but without Native imagery anymore, which is Central Falls High School.
Maine
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As of May 2nd, 2019, the state of Maine passed LD 944, which is an act that banned Native mascots in all public schools. This was the first legislation of its kind in the United States, which took effect on May 16th, 2019, and has since been followed by similar bans in Colorado, Nevada, New York, and Washington.
New Hampshire
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Location: Manchester, NH
Manchester Central High School’s mascot is the “Little Green,” nicknamed after Dartmouth’s “Big Green,” previously “the Indians,” and dates back to the 1920s. The school’s color was originally red but changed to green in the late 1990s after losing a league championship game to Conard High School.
There were efforts to retire the use of the logo once in 2007, and again in March of 2022. In May of 2022, a committee was formed to examine the potential removal of the logo.
Find Manchester Central High School’s website here, and a link to the school’s imagery here.
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Location: Merrimack, NH
Merrimack High’s mascot is the “Tomahawk,” and due to the ax’s association with the Indigenous nations of North America, students have often dressed up in headdresses and face paint during sporting events and school functions, performing “tomahawk chops” and replicating “chants.”
Find a link to the petition here.
Find Merrimack High School’s website here, and links to the school’s imagery here and here.
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Location: Kingston, NH
Sanborn has had the “Indians” mascot since the 1950s. Conversations around potentially changing the mascot sparked in the early 2000s, but the committee discussing it decided that the “Indians” name continue to be used alongside cultural “sensitivity” practices. In the years after this decision, the school made attempts to move away from traditions and symbols like tomahawks and face paints, and renaming their “Indian festival” each fall to “homecoming.”
Find a link to the petition here.
Find Sanborn Regional High School’s website here, and a link to the school’s imagery here.
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Location: Rochester, NH
Beginning in 1920, Spaulding High School adopted “Raiders” as its nickname, with orange and black as the school colors. Indigenous imagery was not introduced until the school’s football team included it in the 1957 yearbook, adding “Red” to the previous “Raiders” nickname, resulting in the “Red Raiders” and the new school colors being red and white. After hearing public comments about the issue on September 10, 2020, the Rochester school board voted 11-2 to keep the “Red Raiders” mascot.
Find a link to the petition here.
Find Spaulding High School’s website here, and links to the school’s imagery here and here.
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Location: Lyndeborough, NH
In April 2008, the school board voted on whether or not they would change the “Warriors” nickname and logo at the high school and ultimately decided not to.
Find Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative School District’s website here, and links to the school’s imagery here and here.
Source here.
