Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
WEKU
WEKU
Scott Neuman

As schools face calls to drop Native American mascots, some could lose state money

Lemiley Lane, who grew up in the Navajo Nation in Arizona, walks along the Bountiful High School campus during her junior year in 2020 in Bountiful, Utah. The school changed its nickname in 2021 to "The Redhawks." (Rick Bowmer/AP)

It was at a high school baseball game in 2019 that Becky Gaither's quiet resentment was transformed into action. The mother of three, who grew up in the Seattle area and traces her ancestry to the Cowichan tribe of the Pacific Northwest, was there to see her son on the field for South Point High in Belmont, N.C., "Home of the Red Raiders."

As the game got heated, so did the taunts from fans for the rival school, Stuart W. Cramer. It wasn't long before all of the most cliched Native American caricatures and stereotypes came out, she says: the hand-over-mouth war whoop, the "tomahawk chop" and "twirling around in a circle like a war dance."

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.