The Okemos school board in Michigan voted Monday to drop its teams’ name, no longer calling them the “Chiefs.”
The name was adopted to honor Chief Okemos, a regional leader of the Saginaw Chippewa tribe during the War of 1812, who serves as the city’s namesake, but school officials have been battling over the name since 1989.
“It values and respects indigenous people, and it offers an opportunity to improve our relationship with the community that nicknames that we have used negatively impact,” 2017 Okemos High School graduate Adanya Gilmore said of the decision.
Gilmore was part of a committee the district appointed to issue a recommendation on whether the name should be changed.
The name is set to be updated in 2023, but it’s unclear if any names have been taken into consideration.
Changing uniforms, branding, and equipment would cost at least $400,000, officials estimated, according to the Lansing State Journal.
One community member concerned by the change is Deborah Guthrie, who designed the school’s logo in 2011, into which she incorporated the outgoing nickname.
“I appreciate history, and I appreciate the truth, not eliminating history,” Guthrie said, according to the Associated Press.
The change would take a burden off of Native American students, leaders in the community said.
“This is a learning moment, a teaching moment that we need to use continuously and not just for this group of students who will be impacted,” said school board member Katie Cavanaugh.
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Other schools across Michigan, as well as some professional teams nationally, continue to eliminate nicknames that refer to indigenous people. The former Washington Redskins of the National Football League call themselves the Washington Football Team while they search for a name.
