9 Massachusetts High Schools Who Ditched Their Native American Mascots and One That Refused

Sports team mascots from the professional level down to elementary schools have been under scrutiny in recent years especially those that depict caricatures of Native Americans.

Cleveland's Major League Baseball Team, Washington D.C.'s Football Team, and our own Taconic High School right here in Pittsfield, Massachusetts have all made the decision to change their mascots name at the request of numerous Native American groups across the country.

Recently the City of Pittsfield and the Taconic High School Mascot subcommittee partnered with a pro-bono marketing firm released a public input survey to help select a new mascot replacing the former Braves name.

There are still about 30 high schools in the state of Massachusetts whose mascot has some depiction of a Native American, either by name or by image.

Check out a list of some Massachusetts high schools that have already made the switch, and one who did not, based on a town vote.

There is one high school in Massachusetts who put the debate over their Native American mascot to a town vote, where it was denied the change but the public. Residents of the Boston suburb of Wakefield voted to keep the high school’s Native American mascot and logo. Wakefield voters supported keeping the school’s Warrior mascot and the accompanying image of a man wearing a feathered headdress by a 2,911 to 2,337 vote, according to the town’s unofficial results. The nonbinding ballot question had sharply divided the town of some 27,000 residents north of Boston.