BOSTON — Franklin County residents had their voices heard on Beacon Hill this week, telling legislators that Indigenous-themed mascots should not be allowed in Massachusetts public schools.

Residents, including state Sen. Jo Comerford, testified in front of the Joint Committee on Education Tuesday on behalf of S.312, “An act prohibiting the use of Native American mascots by public schools in the commonwealth.” The bill, which Comerford is sponsoring, would require the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to create a list of every public school in the state and its mascot; identify schools with athletic team names, logos and mascots that refer to, represent or are associated with Native Americans; and require schools with mascots and logos referring to Native Americans to change their branding within three years.

“This bill is long overdue,” Comerford, who first filed the legislation shortly after being elected as a senator six years ago, told the committee. “Native Americans are sovereign peoples — not mascots, not caricatures. The continued use of Native American imagery in schools as mascots is dehumanizing. It perpetuates harmful stereotypes and has been shown to cause psychological harm, especially for Native youth.”

The committee heard testimony from educators, representatives from tribal nations and a few Franklin County residents who shared their experiences attending schools with Native American mascots.

Rhonda Anderson lives in Colrain and serves as the western Massachusetts representative for the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs. She said convincing school districts to change their mascots of their own volition can be difficult, so a law requiring them to do so would make a huge difference in removing harmful mascots.

“I personally attended two public high schools in Massachusetts with Native American-themed names and stereotypical mascot logos: the Mohawk Trail Regional High School Warriors and the Turners Falls Indians,” Anderson said. “I helped facilitate the change at Turners Falls in 2017 after many exhaustive and dangerous public listening sessions. Time and time again at these listening sessions across the state, I’ve been the target of death threats and violence.”

Montague resident David Detmold echoed Anderson’s sentiments, recounting that Turners Falls High School’s journey to changing the mascot to the Thunder, as it is today, was a challenging one.

“The work of our School Committee to retire the old mascot resulted in the abuse of our School Committee and our advocates,” he said. “It is very difficult work to do on the local level and yet we did it.”

Detmold said the mascots and imagery can reinforce harmful stereotypes that Native Americans are violent warriors.

“What message are we giving to our Native students if we’re telling them from kindergarten that they are brave warriors? Could they not be scientists? Could they not be poets? Could they not be anything their heart desires?” Detmold said.

Anderson said these mascots and the stereotypes they perpetuate do not just impact the students and staff of the district the mascot represents, but the students, staff and community members of the districts they visit, too.

“These mascots do not stay in a school district. They go away to games, and it [fuels] such harmful behavior and biases among area newspapers and communities,” Anderson said. “This sends a message of ignorance and harm, while silencing Indigenous voices that have said we do not feel honored by mascots.”

Comerford told the committee that her bill was developed with support from the Chappaquiddick, Herring Pond, Mashpee and Pocasset Wampanoags, as well as the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag and the Nipmuc Nation. She said, along with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs and Native nations across the country, these Massachusetts tribes are asking for the Indigenous-themed mascots to be removed.

“In the face of federal attempts, the Trump administration’s attempts to reinstate them and to paint them as compliments — they are not compliments,” she said.

Comerford noted Massachusetts schools have made progress in recent decades. In the early 2000s, there were approximately 90 schools using Native mascots. That number has dwindled to about 20.

In addition to the change at Turners Falls High School, Mohawk Trail Regional School removed a large mural of a Native American in a headdress and other Native imagery in 2022, but chose to maintain the Warriors name. The Frontier Regional School District School Committee was among the earliest to make the change locally, voting in 1997 to change the school mascot from the Redskins to the Red Hawks. The Athol-Royalston Regional School District School Committee approved a new mascot in 2021, transitioning from the Red Raiders to the Bears.

“As public institutions charged with educating future generations,” Comerford said, “our schools must reject stereotypes and uphold the values of inclusion and respect.”

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com.