New mascot unveiled, set to replace ‘Indians’ next year
Students at Hart High School, get ready to fly: The “Hawk” is coming to Newhall.
Hart High and William S. Hart Union High School District officials celebrated on Tuesday the unveiling of the school’s new mascot inside Hart’s auditorium during open house, in the latest step of a process that began nearly three years ago.
Hart Principal Jason d’Autremont said the new mascot, set to be in place at the beginning of the next school year, aligns the school with other district mascots being alliterative, such as the Valencia Vikings and the Canyon Cowboys, and represents what the Hart community stands for.
“Hawks are symbols of strength, freedom and intelligence, characteristics of the Hart community,” d’Autremont said.
There were no logos or associated artwork presented with the new mascot.
Approximately 200 people were in attendance, including students, staff and other community members, as well as Hart district Superintendent Mike Kuhlman and governing board President Linda Storli.
The district’s governing board voted in 2021 to change the mascot from “Indians,” citing a need to move away from a race-based symbol that the school has been associated with since Jan. 10, 1946. The board decided to make this change no later than 2025.
Hart students and staff voted during a one-week period spanning the end of February and the beginning of this month on the two options presented: “Hawks” and “Bison.” In total, 1,106 votes were submitted, with 833 going for “Hawks.”
Those two options were the two most-nominated options that students, staff and community members submitted to a committee in April of last year, a process that has since come under scrutiny.
Local activist Steve Petzold said that after reviewing the nominations, he found that nominations for “Indians” or “no change,” as well as “Warriors” were not part of the tallying process.
The Signal’s review of the nominations shows the following submission totals:
- Hawks (or any derivative): 129.
- Indians/no change: 33.
- Bison (or Buffalo): 21.
- Warriors: 22.
- Eagles: 5.
In an email to a community member, d’Autremont said that any nominations asking for no change to be made to the mascot were not part of the official tally due to the governing board’s decision, and nominations for “Warriors” were not accepted due to the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians telling the district that its members felt it would not be appropriate.
A handful of community members with Tataviam blood have said at recent governing board meetings that they do not want the “Indians” mascot to be removed, fearing that their history could be erased. Board member Joe Messina called last week for a renewed discussion of the topic at a future meeting, though three board members would have to agree to have the item be placed on an agenda, according to Storli.
“We need to give the Tataviam Indians, who we were concerned with, a real voice in this as a whole. That’s No. 1,” Messina said in a phone interview last week. “No. 2 is, I want to know why we disregarded what the majority of the people wanted, and several votes now.”
According to an April 14, 2021, Signal story, approximately 61 Hart staff members voted to keep the “Indians” mascot out of 180 who voted in a survey, while 661 Hart students of the 1,343 who were surveyed voted to keep it as well. Hart’s enrollment at the time was approximately 2,100 students, with 340 of those students surveyed saying they had no preference.
All four grade levels had more votes to keep the mascot over those who wanted a change.
As part of the mascot change, the board agreed to have a mural commissioned that would honor Native Americans, though the mural that was unveiled at Hart’s open house last year is not what opponents of the mascot change felt it should represent. The mural depicts a nature scene with a hawk, a bear, some trees, mountains, flowers and a river.
A cultural center was also meant to be constructed, though that has not happened yet.
It remains to be seen if the mascot discussion will indeed be put on a future district board agenda. Storli said in a phone interview last week that “it wouldn’t make sense to return to the discussion after the new mascot has been unveiled,” though Messina would like to give both sides a final chance to discuss the issue.
Next steps
The district is going ahead with “Hawks” as its new mascot for Hart High despite calls for the process to be halted. An imagery vote is set to be held from April 22-26, according to d’Autremont, to see what other logos or artwork could be adopted.
As of now, the official Hart logo is an “H” with a feather attached.
“We want to preserve the history of Hart High School,” d’Autremont said. “So, that’s why we’re keeping the logo with the feathers. I think it’s fitting that we’re the ‘Hawks.’ We can use a feather, perhaps, and use it in a respectful way and not a way that we were deemed as being disrespectful.”
He added that, from a personal perspective, he does not believe that the imagery connected to Native Americans was ever used in a disrespectful manner.
During the nominations process last year, some people also sent in imagery, d’Autremont said, with most of that imagery being for “Hawks.”
“We have some ‘Hawk’ imagery,” d’Autremont said. “We never got ‘Bison’ imagery, but that’s why we gave ourselves a window of time after the reveal because if it was the ‘Bison,’ we would need time to reveal that. So, we didn’t want to gamble and put all of our eggs in one basket and say, ‘Oh, we were thinking it was gonna be the “Hawks,” we have all these imageries.’ We’re gonna take our time and do it right.”
Hart is also set to send off the “Indians” mascot at a rally on May 3 that will also double as a recognition for the final class of seniors who will graduate as Hart Indians.
Petzold was in attendance on Tuesday and was adamant that the mascot not be changed. He said he will do what he can to continue to protest for that to be the case.
“I’m going to continue to work in a mild-mannered way to make sure that our rights under the education code and under the bylaws of the Hart district are respected,” Petzold said. “The ‘Hawk’ might be a good idea as a mascot, but there’s no reason to eliminate the word ‘Indian’ from the lexicon here at Hart (High).”
