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CEDAR CITY — Inspired by the recent changing of the Cedar High School mascot from the Redmen to the Reds, a Southern Utah’s legislator’s resolution seeks to discourage the removal of Native American names, images and symbols unless there is a consensus among affected Native Americans.
Cedar City Rep. Rex Shipp told Cedar City News he decided to sponsor House Joint Resolution 10 in response to concerns in his community after Cedar High’s mascot change.
“There was a lot of division caused in our community in Cedar City when the Redmen name was removed by the school board,” Shipp said. “A lot of the community members, some of them actually being Native Americans, came to me. They were upset.”
Shipp said they told him he needed to do something about it.
“I said, ‘Well, government is always best closest to the people, so there’s no way I’m going to make it a law, but maybe we can do some sort of a resolution that discourages removing those names.'”
There's no way I'm going to make it a law, but maybe we can do some sort of resolution that discourages removing those names.
–Rep. Rex Shipp
The resolution aims to encourage the “the appropriate use of names, images, and symbols of Native Americans and other indigenous people by schools or places” while discouraging the removal of such names, images or symbols.
Read the full article at St. George News.
