By Scott Buttram
PINSON — An online petition on the website change.org is urging the Jefferson County Board of Education to instruct Pinson Valley High School to drop the Indians as the school macot.
The petition, which was started by Toby Vanlandingham of Weitchpec, Calif., is directed to Superintendent Stephen Nowlin and states, “Jefferson County Board of Education: I strongly urge you to instruct Pinson Valley to drop ‘Indian’ from their school name and to forbid the use of a race of people as their mascot.”
Vanlandingham said that he is “a person who strongly opposes American Indians as sports mascots.” The petitioner’s comments go on to mention the Trail of Tears banner used by McAdory students prior to a recent football game.
Also criticized was a photo of a Pinson Valley High School homecoming float that Vanlandingham said “carried a child complete with fake leather fringed shirt and pants, wearing a dyed chicken feather headdress while standing next to his teepee. Also on the float was a paper chain made with white, black, red and yellow links, the four colors of the medicine wheel.” The Pinson Valley’s school colors are black, red and yellow.
The petition seems to have only drawn marginal support nationally and very little support locally. Only one petitioner who expressed their reason for supporting the petition is from Pinson.
“Indian is a race and has been used the wrong way for a long time,” Tanya Nguyen of Pinson said. “It could be PV Mexicans, PV Italians, etc. It’s time to get the respect that has been neglected for so long.”
PVHS graduate Valarie May, who now lives in Mebane, N.C., also commented, but in support of the mascot.
“It is very important to me,” May wrote. “I graduated in 1988 and had a sister that also went there and the Indians is what it has always been and there is nothing wrong with it at all they should leave it as it is!”
Pinson residents have been vocal in their opposition to the school dropping the Indians as their mascot.
“I am sick of bowing down on things that are important to us,” Mandy Sharpe said. “This whole mascot thing takes the cake.”
“We have the Indian mascot to honor them not to denigrate them,” Philip Sharpe said. “Why would we let someone tell us what our intentions are? It’s their mind that has that perception. It’s a racist mind that sees everything through the prism of race.”
As of Saturday night, 43 people had signed the petition, which gained only three additional supporters overnight.
The entire controversy emerged when students at McAdory High School used a banner that said “Hey Indians, get ready to leave in a trail of tears, round 2.” The school later apologized for the use of the banner. The Cherokee Nation responded to the banner with a statement from Principal Chief Bill John Baker, who called the Trail of Tears the “most horrific period in the Cherokee Nation’s history.”
“This unfortunate display shows how much improvement is still needed in the understanding of Native peoples, our triumphs and our challenges, both historical and modern,” Johnson said. “We hope this becomes an opportunity for administrators at McAdory High School, and at schools all across the United States, to teach our young people not only the terrible history behind the Indian removal era, but also the resilience of tribes across the nation.”