CCS Logo, Mascot Being Phased Out
COOPERSTOWN—Cooperstown Central School officials will systematically phase out the school’s long-serving logo by June 2025. This comes as the result of a November 17, 2022 memorandum issued by the New York State Department of Education regarding an official Commissioner’s Decision—subsequently upheld in the State Supreme Court—indicating that public school districts are prohibited from using Native American mascots. According to CCS Superintendent Sarah Spross in her report to the CCS Board of Education at the meeting of June 21, “arguments that community members support the use of such imagery or that it is ‘respectful’ to Native Americans are no longer tenable.”
The New York State Board of Regents, on April 18 of this year, unanimously approved new rules that will ban the use of Native American culture by schools, including names, logos and mascots. Public schools that use Native American names, mascots or imagery will lose state funding. The rule goes into effect after the 2024-2025 school year, but schools that currently have Native American logos or mascots have to commit by the end of this academic year to making a change.
A silhouette of “The Indian Hunter,” a famous sculpture by John Quincy Adams Ward paying homage to author James Fenimore Cooper also referred to by some as the Deerslayer, is the current CCS mascot and logo.
NYSED recommendations presented at the July 19 CCS board meeting read: “CCSD is required to make the determination as to whether or not its team name, logo, or imagery are connected to indigenous Nations or peoples. As you point out in your letter, James Fenimore Cooper is clear that Hawkeye is not indigenous (“The Deerslayer” states that both of his parents were white). However, due to his upbringing among the Lenni Lenape (what Fenimore calls the Delaware People) depictions of Hawkeye may contain indigenous imagery that is prohibited under the Part 123 regulations…Our suggestion would be to engage in further consultation with the Oneida lndian Nation and others to make a final determination in compliance with the regulations.”
Superintendent Spross has also shared a tentative timeline with the Board of Education for complying with the mandate, including removal of the logo on school facilities, signage, the website, and letterhead and other public relations materials, finalization of a new logo and possibly a new name (“Hawkeyes” may or may not stand), and ordering of new uniforms and new printed pieces.
The November 17, 2022 memorandum from NSDED can be found at https://www.nysed.gov/sites/default/files/programs/main/indigenous-native-american-mascot-memo.pdf
As of press time, Superintendent Spross had not responded to e-mails or phone calls seeking additional information and clarification.
Caspar Ewig and Darla M. Youngs contributed to this article.
I believe there is nothing ignoble, insulting or otherwise hurtful about The Indian Hunter and its history. If anything, the statue honors the people who’d been one with the land and forests before they were displaced or even wiped out by the whites. I urge the School Board to act rapidly and decisively to get the opinions of any nations/tribes/individuals whose forebears might have populated the area (be they Algonquin, Mohican, Lenape, Iroquois, Oneida, Mohawk and so forth). I myself would gladly defer to those folks before I’d give in to bureaucrats, however well-meaning such officials might be.