A large crowd attends Monday’s Marquette Area Public Schools Board of Education meeting in which the district’s Marquette Senior High School athletic nicknames of Redmen/Redettes were discussed. The board voted 4-3 to retire the names. (Journal photo by Christie Mastric)

By CHRISTIE MASTRIC

Journal Staff Writer

MARQUETTE — After years of heated debate in the community, the Marquette Area Public Schools Board of Education on Monday at Kaufman Auditorium voted 4-3 to retire the Redmen/Redettes nicknames.

Voting to retire the names were Vice President Glenn Sarka and trustees Cherryl Maddox-Smith, Jennifer Ray and Jennifer Klipp. Voting to keep the names were President Kristen Cambensy, Secretary-Treasurer James Hewitt and Trustee Jason Zdunek.

At the June 26 board meeting, Sarka had requested the issue be put on Monday’s agenda.

“This issue needed to be dealt with,” Sarka said on Monday. “When you think about it, we’ve been at this for four years, as long as kids are in high school.”

In 2019, the MSHS Nickname Research Committee recommended that MAPS discontinue the long-standing nicknames after exploring whether they created an adverse learning environment for students and if they were culturally insensitive.

Committee Chairman Joe Lubig had pointed out at the time that many other organizations had adopted policies that disallow use of Native American symbols and nicknames by non-Native teams because of the misunderstanding and reinforcement of stereotypes that the symbols and imagery promote.

However, the nicknames stayed in place.

Also in 2019, Consumer Connections out of Green Bay conducted the survey with the following results:

≤ 21, 241 surveys were mailed out to district registered voters.

≤ 4,799 valid votes were received.

≤ 1,607 cards were returned undeliverable by USPS due to address changes.

≤ Voting options were randomized.

≤ 59.012% supported keeping the current nicknames

≤ 40.988% supported seeking a new nickname.

Sarka noted that Monday’s meeting that the survey was just one data point to be used, along with public and email comments.

The MAPS board that was in office in 2020 voted to retire the Native American chief logo and formally adopted the block letter “M” as the logo.

The name “Redmen” originally came from the crimson-red color symbolizing the Harvard University alma mater of a former MAPS superintendent.

However, the question of whether to retire the nicknames never went away.

The community was bitterly divided since the issue resurfaced in 2019, but on Monday, public comments surprisingly were skewed in favor of removing the nicknames, unlike previous board meetings that were much more contentious.

One speaker on Monday noted that Native American mascots have been chosen out of respect, but many others disagreed, saying they are offensive and that the Redette nickname for the females is a diminutive.

Rodney Loonsfoot, a member of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Tribal Council, said the KBIC believes that race-based Native American logos, mascots, names and images lead to stereotyping and harmful repercussions.

“The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Tribal Council formally does here advise, reaffirm and stand in opposition to use of all race-based Indian logos, mascots, names and images are being derogatory, divisive and harmful to Native American tribes and tribal governance,” Loonsfoot said.

Tyler LaPlaunt, elected unified representative for the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, said the Tribe’s official stance is opposition to the nicknames.

“It is not inclusive of us, and we actually asked anybody to honor us,” LaPlaunt said.

Andrea Ingmire, director of the Peter White Public Library, spoke in favor of changing the nicknames to something more inclusive.

“Words have power,” Ingmire said.

The board elaborated on their opinions before casting their votes.

“When a Native American student tells me or comes up here and talks about the impact that names have had on her, I’m going to take that at face value,” Sarka said.

He also noted, “We look at the impact, and we look at the harm, you have to ask what’s at stake.”

Klipp said she has spent a lot of time researching the subject.

“Our school, our schools — nationally and otherwise but right now we’re invested in MAPS — must be an area, must be an institution that does no harm,” she said.

Ray indicated that while performing her own research, she did not find supportive information on keeping Native American nicknames but did find numerous studies about the mental harm they cause to Native American children and communities.

“My focus is on understanding on how deeply the Native American community as a whole feels about this issue and its impact on Native American children in communities,” Ray said.

Hewitt expressed the belief that the community will not settle the issue peacefully.

“I don’t want our community to go back and forth over this anymore, constantly fighting and distracting from all the great things that happen here every day,” he said. “I think we have a perfect storm of nuance behind our nicknames’ history that allows us to remove the association from Native American culture histories and move forward and compromise instead.

“If I’m wrong, I’ll be the first to admit it.”

Zdunek said the issue compares the committee’s subjective opinion against a comprehensive objective survey that indicated most of the community supported keeping the names.

He questioned whether the committee was open-minded or if there was a pre-determined recommendation.

“Without having all the information, we simply cannot in good faith act on this agenda item tonight unless the appropriate due diligence is used,” Zdunek said.

Before the vote was taken, Cambensy told the audience, “No matter how this board votes, we will work as a board to support whatever decision is made, and we would expect and hope that the rest of you do the same.

“We’re in this for the kids.”

Maddox-Smith said, “I love this community. I think that we can move forward positively together.”

Christie Mastric can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is cbleck@miningjournal.net.