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Maine Becomes First State to Ban Native American Mascots at Public Schools and Universities
Maine Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill into law Thursday banning public schools or universities in the state from using Native American mascots, names or imagery. Mills' action will make Maine the first state in the nation with such a ban once it goes into effect later this year, The Bangor Daily News reported.
Penobscot Nation Ambassador Maulian Dana told The Associated Press that the law was "a huge step toward trust and respect."
The news comes a little less than a month after Mills signed another bill replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day.
The bill's signing also comes around two months after the last Maine public school district to use such a mascot decided to retire it. The Skowhegan school board voted to stop using the "Indians" name and mascot after a debate lasting more than four years, The Portland Press Herald reported. At one point, disagreement grew so heated that five police officers were assigned to a school board meeting. While the board's decision left open the possibility the name could be restored by a district-wide referendum, Thursday's bill has now made that impossible.
Mills had run on a promise to improve the relationship between the state of Maine and the Native American tribes that call it home, including removing offensive mascots, according to The Portland Press Herald.
Mills' statement on Thursday, reported by The Bangor Daily News, reflected this commitment:
"While Indian mascots were often originally chosen to recognize and honor a school's unique connection to Native American communities in Maine, we have heard clearly and unequivocally from Maine tribes that they are a source of pain and anguish."
"A mascot is a symbol of pride, but it is not the source of pride," Mills said. "Our people, communities and understanding and respect for one another are Maine's source of pride, and it is time our symbols reflect that."
The leadership of the four Wabanaki tribes in Maine–the Penobscot Nation, the Passamaquoddy Tribe, the Aroostook Band of Micmacs and the Houlton Band of Maliseets–all opposed the Skowhegan mascot and supported the bill, The Portland Press Herald reported.
"Today and [from] now on, it is our collective responsibility to the next generations to promote each other as equals, as individuals, and most importantly, as neighbors," non-voting Passamaquoddy Tribe representative Rena Newell told The Bangor Daily News.
While Maine's bill is the first blanket ban by a state of the use of Native American names or mascots by public schools, Mills' office told The Associated Press that California, Oregon and Wisconsin had similar restrictions. California passed a law prohibiting public schools from using the name "Redskins" specifically in 2015. The Oregon Board of Education originally ordered all public schools with Native American names or mascots to change them by 2017, but later amended the rule, saying the schools could keep the mascots if they secured permission from a federally recognized tribe in the state. Wisconsin passed a law in 2010 allowing the state school superintendent to ban race-based mascots if a resident of a district complained. However, a new law was passed in 2013 to make it so that a hearing about a mascot could only be triggered if ten percent of a district's student body signed a petition complaining within 120 days.
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If people in three European countries want to fight the climate crisis, they need to chill out more.
That's the conclusion of a new study from think tank Autonomy, which found that Germany, the UK and Sweden all needed to drastically reduce their workweeks to fight climate change.
"The rapid pace of labour-saving technology brings into focus the possibility of a shorter working week for all, if deployed properly," Autonomy Director Will Stronge said, The Guardian reported. "However, while automation shows that less work is technically possible, the urgent pressures on the environment and on our available carbon budget show that reducing the working week is in fact necessary."
The report found that if the economies of Germany, Sweden and the UK maintain their current levels of carbon intensity and productivity, they would need to switch to a six, 12 and nine hour work week respectively if they wanted keep the rise in global temperatures to the below two degrees Celsius promised by the Paris agreement, The Independent reported.
The study based its conclusions on data from the UN and the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) on greenhouse gas emissions per industry in all three countries.
The report comes as the group Momentum called on the UK's Labour Party to endorse a four-day work week.
"We welcome this attempt by Autonomy to grapple with the very real changes society will need to make in order to live within the limits of the planet," Emma Williams of the Four Day Week campaign said in a statement reported by The Independent. "In addition to improved well-being, enhanced gender equality and increased productivity, addressing climate change is another compelling reason we should all be working less."
Supporters of the idea linked it to calls in the U.S. and Europe for a Green New Deal that would decarbonize the economy while promoting equality and well-being.
"This new paper from Autonomy is a thought experiment that should give policymakers, activists and campaigners more ballast to make the case that a Green New Deal is absolutely necessary," Common Wealth think tank Director Mat Lawrence told The Independent. "The link between working time and GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions has been proved by a number of studies. Using OECD data and relating it to our carbon budget, Autonomy have taken the step to show what that link means in terms of our working weeks."
Stronge also linked his report to calls for a Green New Deal.
"Becoming a green, sustainable society will require a number of strategies – a shorter working week being just one of them," he said, according to The Guardian. "This paper and the other nascent research in the field should give us plenty of food for thought when we consider how urgent a Green New Deal is and what it should look like."
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