The 1950's had plenty of western movies, serials (radio and television) and television programming glorifying the cowboy and villainizing of the Indian. References to savage Indians raping and murdering the white settler were easy Hollywood plots to stick in anywhere.
Blacks were colored people relegated in some areas to separate schools, public establishments and even drinking fountains. It was a time where everyday racism existed and was acceptable.
It was also a time when Arcadia broke away from the Arcadia / Monrovia / Duarte High School and established their own city high school in what many felt was a rebellion. The Hollywood concept of the Apache people defying the United States government was an attractive idea, and matched the attitudes many felt.
Many things have happened since then. Colored people no longer have to sit at the back of the bus. Westerns now show the savage violence inflicted upon the tribes by a government that saw the only solution to the Indian problem as being complete annihilation of the Indian culture. The thought of naming a mascot after a people is frowned upon.
Were a school today to choose a mascot of, say, the Chinese, the uproar among the Asian community would virtually ensure swift removal, and likely a hefty court settlement. Yet, for some unexplainable reason, some still find it acceptable to keep the Apache people as a mascot.
To what do American Indians owe this singular honor? Perhaps it is the persuasive poverty that most American Indian reservations suffer. Perhaps it is the fractured nature of nearly 500 separate nations that make up the American Indian culture. Perhaps it is the lack of a national leadership that can capture the public eye. Whatever it is, it is time to put it to an end.
Arcadia High School does not have the moral authority to keep the Apache people as a lucky token. Not only does a mascot offend, it relegates a people to a footnote of history. The Apache people are far from being a footnote, and are finally finding their political and economic voices.
An Apache tribal council took advantage of the situation - hey, they could rubber-stamp what they could not effectively change, and finally get something out of it. AHS got what they thought was the moral authority, and a few Apache politicians likely got some votes for bringing some good to the reservation.
But the trinkets AHS gave gives them no more rights than a gift of wine to one of the many homeless people in Arcadia. The wino has no more right to give away the city of Arcadia than an Apache council has the right to sell the Apache name.
It would be like one of the provinces of China giving their permission to use Chinese as a mascot. A ludicrous concept, one that would ignore the feelings of the Asian people living in and around the Arcadia area.
How does AHS express this honoring? Through the years, the Apache name has been attached to admittedly offensive characterizations. Even today, the women's drill team still dresses in a bizarre parody of American Indian life. This is an honor?
The AHS administration has defended the mascot, pointing to educational opportunities. Wonderful, if it weren't for the fact that virtually nothing about the Apache people is taught within the school.
Some make the argument that the mascot is fine; after all, no one protested en-masse until the last few years. Wonder why? Perhaps it is because the federal government targeted any political organization by American Indians as being a subversive element? Ask the thousands of American Indians still in jail today about how much they have paid for speaking their minds.
Or, more likely, it is because of the federal programs to separate the American Indian from their community. American Indian children are adopted outside of their culture, families are relocated away from the reservation, in a mistaken effort to help them.
I am sorry to inform the world that we missed out - we never had the charismatic leaders that could bridge the many cultures that make up Indian society. There were no Dr. Martin Luther King Jrs. We had no Caesar Chavez.
Instead, our children go to schools and are required to study Christopher Columbus, a man who looked upon the American Indian as barely intelligent animals to enslave and educate. In California, they study Father Junipero Serra and the Catholic missions built to teach the heathen Indians the right way to live. United States history classes refer to Little Big Horn (where U.S. soldiers were killed) yet ignore Sand Creek (where Indian women and children were massacred while camping under the white flag.)
Arcadia, you know what honoring is. Honoring is naming a school after someone, as Dana Jr. High School attests. Were it an honor to be a mascot, Dana would not grace the title of the school, only the uniforms of the athletic department.
And, whether you want to see it or not, it is now time to move forward and remove the Apache mascot.