Native American Tells Why Some of His People Are Offended by Mohawk Mascot
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A member of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe spoke Dec. 6 on the issue of the Mohawk mascot used at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams.
The college is considering changing the mascot, as some consider it offensive to Native Americans.
Francis Boots, tribe historical preservation officer, said that to his knowledge his tribe did not live in this area, the word Mohawk does not occur in the tribe's native language and gives a false impression of it as warlike, and those among his people who know the tribe's language and history find the word hurtful.
The chief has submitted a name change for the tribe to the federal registry changing the name to its native form. Boots began his talk with a heartfelt spiritual invocation in his native language. Then he offered in English a paean to spiritual aspects of the natural world.
"Ladies and gentlemen, in the ancient way of the Kanien Keh aka people, my nation sends you greetings," he said. "Our greetings come in the way of our ancient tradition, where we look about and we recognize each other as brothers and sisters of the same creation."
"Our people would say, we put our minds together as one, and we greet each other as brothers and sisters," he continued. "I come down here with a very short period of time to address you and try to share with you just a drop about who we are, what we're all about."
A people of peace
"We are called by other people Mohawks. We are told that that is a very derogatory term: 'man-eating,' 'snake-like.' It's not our term," Boots said. "We call ourselves Kanien Keh aka: 'the people of the flint.' "
They are the people who inhabit what is today known as the "Mohawk Valley" in New York. They live in seven communities in Quebec, Ontario, and New York. Today they number about 55,000, but at point of contact with whites they were much more numerous, he said. St. Regis is located in northern New York on the St. Lawrence River.
"We come from a purely matriarchal society. We follow our lineages through the female line," he said. "I belong to the clan of my mother, who uses the snipe bird as its symbol, that clan."
Another clan uses the symbol of the wolf for their extended family and another the symbol of the turtle.
"These are our symbols. These are how we project what is ours," Boots said. "From time immemorial, we have symbols and we have designs that we use proudly. We use it in a good way. We use it as a teaching tool to our children. ...
"We are a little bit disturbed. For a long, long time now athletic teams across the Americas [have been] using a mascot of a race of people."
There is much controversy about this issue. He asked those present to imagine a Native American family watching a major sporting event in which fans are using Styrofoam tomahawks to cheer.
"What does it say to you?" he said. "Our basic philosophy, the basic teachings of our people [is] a tree of peace.
"At the bottom of this tree are four bright roots of peace. Our symbol is peace, our symbol is righteousness, our symbol is strength.
"The history of our people is distorted. We're not savage. We're not warlike. We don't grow feathers in our hair. I don't know what the word 'ugh' means in any native language."
More Places Named Mohawk
"I don't get an opportunity to come to this area too often. I come here, and I see a sign on the roadside that says 'Mohawk Trail.' Well, I'm wondering which Mohawks are they talking about that trailed through here?" he said. "Is it my ancestors? And it was at nighttime, and I have a hard time figuring out why would they pick this trail? It's the hardest trail through this area. It doesn't make sense.
"I get here and then we have Mohawk Theater, and you have Mohawk this and Mohawk that. It surprises me. There are more places that are called Mohawk in this area than on my reservation."
He said the word Mohawk does not appear in the tribe's language.
"You have a history here at your school using the Mohawk as your athletic mascot. Have you ever thought for a moment: 'Does that benefit the Mohawks in any way, shape, or form? Does it make a difference?' " he said. "And we sit at home and we wonder why you pick such a name, because it's not a good name to us. And yet we understand that there's [an] idea it might be a positive thing to you."
Boots said a couple of weeks before his visit he asked people what they thought of the mascot at MCLA.
"Well, it didn't really matter to them that much because, one, they don't come to North Adams a lot. Second, I don't think they ever will," he said. "But in the more general, bigger picture of mascots, we do have an opinion. It's hurtful, because it's not based in any understanding. It's not based in any human relationship or friendship or nation-building or community-building."
The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe has been working diligently to reconcile its differences with its neighboring communities. Boots said his area has some proud athletic teams there, and they are careful when they pick mascots. A senior lacrosse team is called 'thunder.' Similarly, the junior lacrosse calls itself 'lightning.' The local hockey team are the 'wolves.' A team in a Canadian community across the St. Lawrence River from the reservation called their lacrosse team the "Mohawks."
"They're changing [the name], because it doesn't sit totally comfortable," he said.
He showed a traditional headdress of his people. "To the Kanien Keh aka people, when you have a depiction of our traditional head gear and it's distorted and it comes to you from Hollywood, it's offensive."
Boots spoke about Hollywood depictions of Native Americans he saw as a child.
"In this movie, this depiction, a cowboy shoots one bullet, and 16 Indians fall off their horse. This type of distortion, although it may not seem harmful in its intent, does affect us," he said. "Then there is raw racism: 'dirty Indian,' 'savage pagan,' 'drunk,' 'welfare,' 'Mohawks.' It hurts."
'Be Proud of Who You Are'
"Our culture is rich, our culture is full. There's nothing missing. For you to help us in any way, if that's the intent ... my old people would say, 'Be proud of who you are.' Study about your own culture. Come to know your original language," he said. "Come to know your original instructions. Be good at it. Because in every philosophy, in every [teaching] of the world, you always come to basic 'love thy neighbor.' And it's true in Kanien Keh aka."
Most Not Offended by 'Mohawk'
Boots said he was open to comments, questions, and discussion. A student asked him why his people refer to themselves as the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe if the name is offensive to them. Boots noted that Jesuit missionaries dedicated their church in the area to St. Regis. The tribe's woman chief said the day before that the tribe had submitted a name change to the federal registry to Akwesasne Kanien Keh aka.
"Akwesasne" is the name of their community and means "land where the partridge drums." Of the seven communities where Kanien Keh aka people live, three have no one who speaks the language, he said.
"And they don't understand the difference. When you have been told something for generation after generation after generation, they start using the term 'Mohawk,' " Boots said. "And it's not offensive to them because they don't know the history of it. They don't know where that comes from."
He acknowledged that iron workers who climb large steel structures will proudly call themselves a Mohawk ironworker.
"Everybody calls us that. And I think that's one of the more difficult things because they didn't have a good opportunity to learn our language," he said of fellow tribe members. "It's hard for them to pronounce our words."
To "those of us that understand ... it is offensive. The vast majority of folks at home, Kanien Keh aka people, they don't know the true history of it, so it wouldn't be," he said. "If you went to St. Regis Indian Reservation, and you said 'Mohawks,' nobody would take it offensive, because it's been pushed on us for so long.
"But the truth of it was, inside our history, is the difficulty. It's a slang name that was given to us."
He noted that his people find more offensive mascots such as that of the Cleveland Indians. No one in the audience chose to argue with Boots and he received polite, if restrained applause, when his talk ended.
Update October 2021: MCLA had adopted the Mohawk mascot in 1963. Prior to that, it had been a doll named Stacey, the Gremlins and the Professors. The Mohawk mascot was dropped in 2002 after conversations on the college campus like the one above and to bring the college in line with other higher-education institutions that were dropping team names that were seen to be insensitive to Native Americans. The Trailblazer moniker was adopted shortly afterward — inspired by the many trails in the region — and a catamount was added as a mascot in 2017.
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