With summer research about the origin of the nickname Redskins completed, the Cooperstown Central School district handed the task over to an ad hoc committee made up of community leaders, students and district affiliates.

School superintendent Mary Jo McPhail said school board member Keith Additon will be stepping up to help fill the role vacated by the resignation of board member Catherine Ellsworth, who had been chairing the board's public relations committee and heading up the study of the Redskins nickname.

McPhail said the names are being kept mum until the committee has an opportunity to meet officially. She anticipates this happening in September. There will be a school board member on the committee, a PTO member, two students from the Varsity "C" Club, a Student Council member and four others from the community.

"They'll be reporting to the school board in June of 2002," said McPhail. "The committee's job is to determine what process might be utilized in order for the school board to best consider their alternatives with regard to the nickname and logo. Certainly I think this is a topic of issue. Some people in the community feel very strongly that the name remain. Likewise, there are those who feel equally strongly that it should be changed. Board members are hearing from constituents on both sides, and they are sensitive to both sides of the issue."

Ellsworth worked this summer with local historian Hugh MacDougall in an effort to determine the origin of the name. MacDougall said that there is a "myth" that the name was adopted because of longtime athletic director Red Bursey, but he doesn't place much stock in it.

"Cooperstown shouldn't be beating itself over the head for having this name," MacDougall said, "but it would be nice to take the lead on the matter instead of being a reluctant follower."

MacDougall said that Cooperstown has long-standing, positive ties to the Native American community stemming primarily from James Fenimore Cooper's writing. He credits the Fenimore Art Museum for reinforcing this positive association by maintaining an extensive collection of Native American art and artifacts.

"Many Native Americans feel very strongly about this issue, which is in no way exclusive to Cooperstown. It's a nationwide debate. This isn't my decision to make. The school board will be making it. But personally, in the fullness of time, I think they should change the name," MacDougall said.

McPhail said that Additon's next move is to check the "catalogues," publications put out by the school prior to the appearance of yearbooks. MacDougall already did this and found that the name Redskins did not show up until at least the mid-twenties, which is when it appeared in many schools across the country, according to Henry Wallace, Chief of the Unkechaug Nation on Long Island.

"Many of the mascots were created in the 1920's to supposedly honor an extinct race of people. But we're not extinct, It is intrinsically and fundamentally racist, a method by which people can avoid the reality of Indian existence," Wallace said.

The battle in New York State is in response to a letter sent to all school board presidents and superintendents of schools by state commissioner of education Richard Mills, who stripped the ambiguity from the request by saying that the use of mascots should stop, though he did not specify the consequences for failure to do so.

"I have concluded," wrote Mills in his April 2000 letter, "that the use of Native American mascots or depictions as mascots can become a barrier to building a safe and nurturing school community...I ask the superintendents and presidents of school boards to lead their communities to a new understanding of this matter. I ask boards to end the use of Native American mascots as soon as practical...Next year, I will formally evaluate the progress on this issue."

Tom Dunn, a spokesperson for the State Education Department, said, "It's clear what school districts need to do next." He declined to further specify what he meant, citing that Mills' letter outlined his position very clearly.

The United States Commission on Civil Rights issued a report entitled "Use of Native American Images and Nicknames as Sports Symbols," in which they call the situation "particularly inappropriate and insensitive in light of the long history of forced assimilation that American Indian people have endured in this country."

They go on to say "These Indian-based themes and symbols and team names are not accurate representations of Native Americans. Even those that purport to be positive are romantic stereotypes that give a distorted view of the past."

Vernon Bellecourt, president of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media was one of seven activists who took the Washington Redskins to task for their trademark, and won the court battle, resulting in the team losing a trademark patent on their logo. He said educational institutions should never use Native American symbols as mascots or nicknames because it ignores the relationship of genocide in this country which resulted in death for sixty million Native Americans.

"We're doing America a favor by bringing it to their attention," he said. "It's a disservice to us and to them. A lot of times it's the alumni clinging to the old way and they only take this position because they were brought up on it."

Bellecourt, also known as WaBun-Inini of the Anishinabe-Ojibwe Nation, suggested that communities and schools allow children to choose a symbol more reflective of "their America" and "the changing times." He said such a solution would foster creativity in children.

MacDougall said, "Schools across the state have taken various stances on this issue. Some are reconsidering their mascot. Some are refusing to change. But my general feeling is that it's a matter of time, so it's better to do it voluntarily than to wait until you have a gun to your head. This kind of issue shouldn't tear the community apart. There should be calm, sensitive discussion."

His wife, Eleanore MacDougall, agreed. "Redskins is a fairly prejuducial kind of word," she said. "The issue is how Native Americans look at the term. Cultural guidelines have changed. It's time to come up with a creative solution, choose a new name. Maybe it could be changed to The Pioneers."