Some pep rally traditions may be offensive to the native culture.
Photo By: Adriana Ochoa, Photographer
By: Aida Lashinsky, Reporter
Pep-rally day. Walking around in a sea of students sporting orange and black: necklaces, war paint, Native American costumes, along with spears and headbands… sit down on the bleachers. Watch as our mascot, dressed in fringed leather and a crown of feathers raises his spear and dances to the beat of the drums, acting out defeat of the opposing team. Stand with arms around each other and sing the alma mater, motioning Tomahawk chops to bring the event to an end. It is no question that SHS loves its Native American mascot, but do we get carried away with all the props, so much that we come to lose respect for this strong, native culture?
SHS stands out among the other schools in our area in that it recognizes the local history and culture. Lake Mary is the Rams, Crooms is the Cougars, but we are a people. We are the Seminole Indians.
A mascot is chosen as a symbol of strength, what school members aspire to be. The Seminole Indians were chosen to represent this through their bravery, pride, and endurance. The portrait of Osceola, the famous Seminole leader, lays pasted at the front of our school to remind us of their fearless bravado.
“I think we as citizens should respect our school to be enough to try to make it be something honorable,” says Ms. Cynthia Brooks, an interior design teacher who’s been at SHS for 16 years. “[The Seminoles] fought hard. They were honorable people. They want to be winners. They want to be top of the class. Who wouldn’t want to be one, right?”
Much of this symbolism of strength and pride can easily be buried under fake feathers and spears, creating a fun caricature of a people that spilled their blood for honor. Now, SHS would never intentionally mock the Seminole Indian culture. We look up to them as powerful role models, but the fun and games allow lines to blur. Having a people as our mascot comes with an added responsibility of respect, and we need to remember this when representing their culture.
“I know that not only Native Americans wear the headdresses and wear all the things that we do but I think for us it’s more of a thing of symbolism, and I would understand if there was some miscommunication between the two. However, it is not meant to be offensive in any way,” says student body president Nicole Blonsick. “I think it’s really important that we recognize that we’re from Seminole County and the Seminole Indians, but I don’t appreciate the disrespect when people wear costumes and they try to make jokes out of it. I think, because it’s a Native American culture, it’s really important to the State of Florida especially, and I think we should respect that.”
Respect for the culture starts with knowing its history. How many Seminole students can name a characteristic specific to this strong tribe? How many can describe their reputation of no-surrender and tell about how they were the only tribe in America who never signed a peace treaty? How many can describe the brutality of the Seminole Wars? How many even know who Osceola was? Yet every student can tell you that Indians wore headdresses and leather and used spears.
If SHS included more history of the Seminole Indians in their traditions, students would be able to respect and value them as their mascot on a greater level. Learning the history can be as simple as running brief informative episodes on the school news each week or including localized segments within the required history courses. Even having a Seminole Indian guest speaker coming into classrooms to share a more personal relation that students can learn from.
Yes, Seminole High School is bursting with school pride. And yes, some Seminole Indians did wear headdresses and animal-skin clothing. But we need to apply more attention to educating students about the culture that they are representing and the strength that they are looking up to. There are better ways to honor our mascot than having them dance in the field with a spear. Respect starts with knowing the history and culture of the tribe, so that we even know why we should be proud to honor them.