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Students Dancing in the Aisles: Mohawk Council’s Assembly educates MHS on Indigenous culture, the Nipmuc tribe, traditional songs and dances
Students Dancing in the Aisles: Mohawk Council’s Assembly educates MHS on Indigenous culture, the Nipmuc tribe, traditional songs and dances
By Kaitlyn Richards | Oct. 25, 2022
On Friday October 21, the Mohawk Council arranged an assembly to spotlight the culture of the Nipmuc people. The assembly was performed by Andre Strongbearheart Gaines Jr. and his nephew Dayshawn. Gaines's goal is to focus on bringing back the traditional Indigenous culture to the Native Americans who may have abandoned or forgotten parts of their native culture.
Gaines is a member of the Nipmuc nation. He is a public speaker, educator, and Indigenous rights activist. Gaines is also a traditional dancer and singer. Gaines taught Millis High School students about the different cultural and daily practices of the Nipmucs. Gaines also highlighted the importance of nature to Native Americans. Unfortunately Gaines stated that there were only around 2,500 members of the Nipmuc tribe remaining.
Gaines showed Millis High School students traditional songs and dances. He even allowed the students to participate in a “snake dance” and in a “round dance.” The two dances were being danced by the students and Dayshawn while Gaines sang a traditional Nipmuc song. Also, Gaines's nephew Dayshawn performed a dance that showed the four cardinal directions. Prior to the dances, Gaines also highlighted the wrongdoings that the colonists did against the Native Americans. He taught the students about the King Philip's War, which was one of the deadliest wars against the Native Americans in American history.
“As a teacher I want to continue to bring indigenous learning opportunities to the students and staff. It's one thing to talk about indigenous people and their culture but it's another things to give students a hands on experience.” said Mr. Fallon, advisor of the Mohawk council. “I thought the assembly went great! I thought that our speaker was engaging, insightful, and I thought that he had great energy.”
“As teachers," Fallon continued, "we need to be able to find the natural instances in our curriculum where we can teach about indigenous history. It's our job as educators to be able to create more opportunities for students to learn.”
The assembly gave Millis High School students the opportunity to appreciate and to be educated about cultures that are different from their own. Gaines brought many of his creations to the auditorium for students to look at. He brought traditional Nipmuc clothing, wooden tools, and he even brought different animal skins.
Sophomore student Avery Covitz said that “I’m very thankful that we got the opportunity to meet Andre, a member of the Nipmuc tribe and that he was willing and excited to share and educate us about his incredible culture.”
Overall, the assembly was very well received by the students and the staff of Millis High School. Many students and teachers agree that this was one of the best assemblies Millis High School has seen in a while.
"A Teaching Opportunity": One Teacher's Plan to Keep the MHS Mascot
"A Teaching Opportunity": One Teacher's Plan to Keep the MHS Mascot
By Maddie Miga
On December 1st, 2020, the Millis School Committee met to address the potential changes regarding our high school mascot. For 60 years, students have begun and graduated high school as members of the Millis Mohawks. While some wish to conclude generations of being the Millis Mohawks, others believe that it’s not the mascot that needs to change, but how we honor it. Mr. Fallon, one of Millis’ history teachers and the high school’s girls varsity basketball coach, emphasized this during the school committee and in an interview with our staff.
During the conference, Fallon quoted that his goal of keeping our mascot, “is not to keep the Mohawks name because we’ve always had it, but because we’ve always had it but have failed to teach our school and community about these incredible people.” In the interview, Fallon elaborated on his argument that his intention of keeping the mascot isn’t for tradition, but for the educational opportunities, he wants to provide not only us students with but all of Millis. His proposal to the committee involved establishing a “Mohawk Council” for us students to learn more about Mohawk culture and building a “Mohawk Trail” at Oak Grove that incorporates facts and history about the specific tribe that once belonged to this area. Though Fallon presented his argument against the removal of our mascot, he admitted to agreeing with how it’s falsely depicted.
While he remains on the opposing side of the Retire the Mohawk Committee, Fallon states that our town should “immediately get rid of images in our school that stereotypically depict Native Americans. For example, the image that’s on the center of our gym floor. These characters are harmful and perpetuate negative stereotypes of America’s first peoples.” When asked what images should be substituted for the current symbols, Fallon stated “whatever our next symbol is, I think the students naturally would want some voice in that process. But I also think we should really ask the Mohawk reserves that I made a relationship with and ask for their help.” While additionally incorporating his research on the Mohawk tribe, Fallon spoke about meeting with the two largest Native American reserves; Chief Joseph from the Kahnawake reserve and Chief Francis from the Akwesasne reserve. While individually meeting with both chiefs, Fallon noted, “the first thing both groups said was they appreciated being contacted and being asked these questions.” In our interview, he expressed that the majority of people talk for the Native Americans rather than letting them talk about an issue that they’re being affected by. In addition, these reserves announced that they “supported my (Mr. Fallon) efforts” and are more than willing to work with him to create projects and learning opportunities to better our understanding of the Mohawk tribe.
Before interviewing Mr. Fallon, our staff’s Instagram posted a poll addressing other’s opinions on this issue. The results comprised 52% on Fallon’s side with 48% wanting the mascot to change. While the majority of athletes at Millis High School wish to keep us as the Millis Mohawks, and Fallon being involved with the Millis Athletics, when asked if being an athlete contributed to where someone stands on this topic Fallon replied, “naturally as a coach I have Millis pride, but when I began my research it came more from the history part of me rather than the basketball coach.” As a history teacher, Fallon believes it’s his obligation to provide us students with a better understanding of the Mohawk tribe through different projects and activities. Mr. Fallon is currently working with Grace Jewett on her senior project to form a “Mohawk Council” for all Millis High School students to be a part of.
*Op-ed pieces are not opinions of the Millis High School Newspaper or our staff. Op-ed pieces are submitted by MHS students.
Op-ed: Mohawk
Op-ed: Mohawk
By Grace Jewett
Hi everyone! My name is Grace Jewett and for my senior project I am going to, with help from Mr. Fallon, learn and educate our community about the Mohawk tribe. As a community our biggest downfall is that the Mohawk history is not built into our curriculum and our students are not being taught about the community we are representing. I believe that from my project, I will be able to provide enough information, activities and opportunities to build a curriculum for our teachers to teach our students.
So far, I have learned so much about the tribe that we are representing! The Mohawk society is still here today living in the United States (New York) and parts of Canada. Mr. Fallon has been fortunate enough to be able to talk to some of these communities, and I am excited to start this project with hopes of having not only me but more students in our school be able to talk to some of the Mohawk tribes!
The more that Mr. Fallon and I learn about the Mohawks, the more we realize that we have an amazing opportunity in front of us. As I do understand this may be a sensitive and hot topic, I want to inform you that I am passionate about this project, not because it's our mascot and I don't want it to change. But, most importantly because we have an amazing opportunity in front of us to teach about a special tribe and display their values and beliefs in our community. I also want to acknowledge that we believe that Millis should immediately get rid of the images in our school that depict Native Americans in a stereotypical manner because we are not a generic mascot like the Indians, Redskins, Tomahawks, or the Warriors. In fact, we are also interested in helping design a new image for our school. We believe that the Mohawk tribes should also be a part of this conversation and we look forward to discussions about new imagery for our school.
We are the Mohawks, a special tribe, with a rich history, a good story, and strong values. I believe as a leader, it is my job to make a difference in our school community, and I want our students to take pride in representing such an amazing community. Teaching our community about the Mohawks would be the first step in the right direction, paving a pathway to not only to preserve their rich history but also to build a cultural empathy beyond our formative high school years.
If you are interested in learning more about the Mohawk tribe, I would love to see you at our Mohawk Council meetings! We will be learning so much together and seriously making a huge impact and difference in our community! The meetings will start Wednesday after we get back from Winter break, if you have any questions please reach out (grajew21@millisschoolos.org). We look forward to seeing you there! Again, my end goal is to create a school-wide appreciation, acceptance and passion for being a Mohawk! We have a great opportunity in front of us, and we want YOU to help make a long-term difference in our community!
Thank you!
Op-ed: Time to Retire the Mohawk
Op-ed: Time to Retire the Mohawk
By Eva Fabian
I am a part of the “Retire the Millis Mohawk”, along with alumni Rebekah Kohls and Emma Lederer. While there may be some mixed feelings about the Mohawk, many counter arguments can be easily dismissed with factual evidence.
The Mohawk Mascot causes students to feel out of place, overlooked, and opens a platform for discrimination. An argument many use is “we are honoring the Mohawk tribe”, well while the intentions of some people may be good, it is ultimately hurting the tribe.
All around the country teams are changing their names and mascots. For example the “Redskins”. There is also a need for more curriculum surrounding the Mohawk tribe. This is not just a moment, this is a movement.
Back in June, Rebekah Kohls started a petition online to retire the Mohawk. It has received over 3,000 signatures and continues to grow. Furthermore, the Mohawk tribe should have the ultimate decision on whether or not Millis can use their name. The Mohawk Nation Council of Chiefs provided verbal confirmation that the use of the Mohawk in Millis is offensive.
Not only does the name need to change, but also the imagery. It does not matter that our town has had this mascot for years. We are not erasing history. By changing the name, you will not lose your championships, accomplishments, and any hard work you have put in.
To quote William Shakespeare, “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. History is changing and it is up to us whether we want to be on the right side.
Letter from the editor concerning the MHS Newspaper's name change
Letter from the editor concerning the MHS Newspaper's name change
In these past few weeks since we as a newspaper decided to change our name, I have had the unique opportunity to ruminate on this decision and on the nature of our newspaper itself. You see, a newspaper is two things. First, and primarily, it is the voice of the people it represents. Just as The New York Times speaks for the people of New York as well as, arguably certain parts of America, we at the as-for-now symbolically nameless Millis High School Newspaper speak for our student body and school community. That is why we will continue to give a platform for discussion and opinion to people on both sides of the conversation, as you can see with our companion op-eds by Grace Jewett and Eva Fabian. They are part of the beginning of a new project for our paper, centering around the discussion about our mascot that we have been having these past few years. If we were to begin reporting only one opinion, we would be failing in our jobs as reporters and as a vessel for your voice; we cannot, in good conscience, tell only half of the story, and it has never been our intention to do so, despite what mis-implications may have been drawn from our new nameless state.
That being said, a newspaper is also, like I mentioned before, a second thing. A newspaper is also a company, or an organization, or, in our humble case, a team. That team is perfectly within its rights to make decisions for itself and its operations that reflect the contexts and changes to their own work. The decision to change our name is not a response to anything particularly new happening within our school community. Every year since I have gone here, and I am sure for many more, petitions have been brought forth to change the name of our mascot. Our decision as a team is not a mandate to the school itself, nor is it an endorsement or prescription for any future actions taken by the school committee. In fact, we have been discussing the decision to change our name since Mr. Carter first opened the conversation during my very first meeting as editor—way back in October.
In the end, this is a decision we made as a team for ourselves. We made it for a variety of reasons. One of them being that we want to make an effort to include more input from the people we write our newspaper for, you. We want to hear your ideas for our new name, which you can submit on our Twitter and Instagram pages. We hope that by personalizing the name of our newspaper to this generation of Millis students, we can enhance our mission to represent your voices. On the topic of generation, I find it a small but nonetheless relevant digression to bring up the fact that the Millis High School Newspaper was not always called The Mohawk Post. Unlike the case of the school mascot itself, the newspaper has only printed under that name for about ten years. Our traditional name is The Crimson Letter, which, if our readers who value that sort of thing desire it to be so, we may return to in the future.
Finally, it would be erroneous and frankly a little condescending if I never acknowledged that the history and controversy around the use of “Mohawk” in our schools had something to do with the name change. The fact of the matter is that times in history like ours today call upon us to make choices. There is no impartial option here. To continue to publish under the name is to endorse its use; to remove the name is to make a statement, whether small or large, about that use. As I clarified earlier, this will not change our reporting, and it will certainly not change the representation of different opinions in our published works. This was a decision made purely by our team, for our own uses. It is my hope that you will decide to be a part of that decision by aiding us in our search for a new name.
Happy Holidays,
Callie Cassidy
Editor-in-Chief
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