The Oregon Board of Education has approved Indian mascots for four school districts: Philomath, Siletz, Rogue River, and Amity have ratified agreements with the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians. As KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, three other districts are taking a different tack.
Oakridge, North Douglas, and Lebanon all say they’ll keep the “Warriors” name, but alter their logos so they lack Native American imagery.
Oakridge’s new symbol sports a logger’s axe and trees. The superintendent says they’ll now honor all warriors including soldiers.
North Douglas will phase out its mascot -- “Willy the Warrior”. They’re switching their logo with the letters “ND”, similar to Notre Dame.
![](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/aa31adf/2147483647/strip/true/crop/441x531+0+0/resize/880x1060!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fsites%2Fklcc%2Ffiles%2F201706%2FWillyTheWarrior.jpg)
And Lebanon says it’ll transition to a logo without Indian imagery. Instead it’ll just have the letters “LW”.
Under Oregon rules passed in 2012, districts had to either reach agreements with neighboring, federally-recognized tribes to keep an Indian mascot, or discard any native associations by July 1st …or risk losing state funds.
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