BHS mascot

The high school has not always had the “Warrior” as their mascot and even such, several iterations of the “Warrior” have been used.

Until as late as 1984, sports teams used the “Sagamore Indian” as their mascot, which was often abbreviated as the “Indians.” It is unclear when the high school took on the mascot of “Sagamore Indians,” but the first use of Indigenous imagery in the BHS yearbook was in 1928. Most likely, the mascot came long after the existence of the newspaper “The Sagamore,” initially named in 1893.

The “Indians” was not the only way teams were identified, as they were often referred to as the “Wealthy Towners” in articles from this newspaper and other local newspapers.

According to a 2007 edition of this newspaper, the school dropped the mascot of the “Indian” in 1971, when two Indigenous students protested the practice of the cheerleading team dressing up as Native Americans during the Thanksgiving day pep rally.

The first time this newspaper referred to sports teams as the “Warriors” was in 1986. According to former Head of School Bob Weintraub, the “Warrior” can be thought of in a generic sense, given the many different types of warriors, including the terra-cotta warriors displayed in the atrium.

The school used stereotypical Native American imagery, such as headdress, in yearbook designs and for costumes, though based on archived yearbooks and newspapers, jerseys did not depict any symbols. Later, the high school turned to a Native American arrowhead– depicted as a spear with feathers.

In 2007, the girls varsity volleyball players wore Native American headdresses before their state semifinal game, which ignited widespread conversations about the impact of having Native American imagery serve as the school’s mascot.

Specifically, members of the Tribal Community Alliance, a club composed of Native American students, condemned the offensive nature of this act.

Native American student Alicia Mucha ‘08 was the first to approach Weintraub with concerns about the racial implications of the costume worn by the volleyball team. Mucha and others who took a stand were met with fierce opposition from other students.

The evening of the incident, girls from the volleyball team created a Facebook group entitled “we ARE the warriors, we will ALWAYS be the warriors,” and 400 others joined in support of the mascot.

In a 2006 edition of this newspaper, Mucha said students verbally attacked her, calling her an “ugly Sasquatch b*tch” and a “Native American c*nt.”

Mucha said the volleyball event and reaction made her feel unsafe walking the halls of the high school.

“I don’t feel comfortable in my own school because I don’t know what I am going to see every time I walk in,” Mucha said in the 2006 article. “We’re still here, and we’re not a joke and we’re not a costume.”

The mascot was officially removed soon after and the high school proceeded without a mascot until 2014.

According to current Athletic Director Kyle Williams, who was named Assistant Athletic Director in 2014, without an official logo, many people were continuing to use the previous offensive symbol.

“That absence of a logo meant that some students were still holding on to the iconography that was problematic. There was an absence of a unifying symbol,” Williams said. “It meant that some teams went and did their own logo for their own sport, and we have 90 teams and like 40 programs, so you could have imagined that we had a lot of different things and images representing Brookline High School.”

The culmination of two years of work by the Athletic Department, Brookline Superfans, Student Council and Legislature resulted in the selection of the Spartan Warrior as the new mascot, which was formally unveiled to the community at a pep rally in 2014. The other finalist for a mascot was a Revolutionary Warrior, but a vote conducted during all advisories selected the Spartan.

According to Williams, students have made the most of the term “Warrior.”

“Groups have used it really productively, like Warriors for Change and Social Justice Warriors and SHARP Warriors,” Williams said. “It’s certainly something where people can take it and use it in a healthy productive way.”

There are still signs of the high school’s history of Native American appropriation, such as the banners depicting the arrowhead hanging in the Schluntz gym.

Williams said the district has made progress removing old emblems, such as the arrowhead logo formerly painted on the floor of the Tappan Gym, but work still remains.

“The banners themselves are certainly something that needs to be addressed and it’s long overdue. I think some of the delay probably revolves around trying to do the project all at once. But there hasn’t been much conversation,” Williams said. “We have an interest in pretty much taking out all of the banners and restarting that process so that it really represents and celebrates our student body, past and present.”