By Hannah DeRuyter
May 26, 2021
A Michigan school district is following the same steps as other schools in the state and removing its nickname as Chiefs.
The Okemos Public School Board of Education voted Monday (May 24) to stop using the name Chiefs or Chieftains.
Lansing State Journal, the board plans to pick a new name and mascot by 2023. In the meantime, the name drop can cost the school district more than $400,000 to remove the name and images from school buildings, uniforms, and other portions of the school, like the turf football field.
The name originally came from Native American leader
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OKEMOS Okemos student-athletes will no longer compete as the Chiefs after district leaders cast a vote 30 years in the making.
The Okemos Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously Monday to stop using the Chiefs nickname, which an increasing number of students, alumni and residents say is an offensive caricature of indigenous people.
The board hopes to adopt a new mascot by 2024.
The decision comes after decades of discussion surrounding Okemos Public Schools moniker, which was picked for the town of Okemos namesake, Chief Okemos.
Superintendent John Hood was the most recent district leader to consider a name change for the district late last year. But discussions surrounding the nickname and mascot date at least to the mid-1990s, when Katie Cavanaugh, secretary for the Board of Education, was an Okemos High School student.
Okemos school district near Lansing drops Chiefs nickname
May 25, 2021
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OKEMOS, Mich. (AP) A Lansing-area school district named for a Native American leader is dropping its Chiefs nickname, following similar changes at other Michigan schools.
The Okemos school board voted Monday to stop using Chiefs or Chieftains and pick a new nickname in a few years. The switch could cost more than $400,000 to remove the name and image from buildings, uniforms and other school properties, the Lansing State Journal reported.
Okemos is an unincorporated community in Meridian Township. It is named for Chief Okemos, who lived in the area and led the Saginaw Chippewas. He died in 1858.
The Okemos Public Schools Board of Education voted earlier this week to discontinue using the nickname Chiefs.
The Lansing State Journal says that decision comes after several students, alumni, and residents have commented that the nickname is an offensive caricature of indigenous people.
The school was named after Chief Okemos and has been since Katie Cavanaugh, a secretary for the Board of Education, was a student at Okemos High School in the 1990s.
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Cavanaugh told the Lansing State Journal that the nickname has always made her uncomfortable because it s offensive and gendered.
There have been some individuals who have expressed keeping the nickname as they thought it was a great way to honor American Indians and Chief Okemos.