“I’m going to school among my people’s colonizers,” said Shults, a citizen of the Muskogee Nation and a student at Oberlin High School.
Studies show Native American mascots have a negative impact on Native American students’ self-esteem and present stereotypical images which undermine the educational experiences of all students.
“Native people understand how much tradition there is around sports. Native people invented one of the first team sports – it’s stickball, the grandfather of lacrosse. So we get it,” Shults said. “But sports is supposed to bring people together, not divide them.”
While Black Lives Matter protests and racial reckoning prompted schools across Ohio to reconsider their Native American mascots, the National Congress of American Indians said few K-12 schools have changed their mascot since the summer of 2020.
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