A Long Island school pleaded Monday with the Trump administration to jump into its ongoing fight to keep its Native American team name – with one week until a pivotal legal deadline.
Massapequa school officials sent a letter to Trump Education Secretary Linda McMahon asking the feds to intervene in a legal case to preserve its Chiefs name and logo in the face of a New York State ban on Native American imagery.
“In Massapequa, three things are certain: death, taxes and ‘once a Chief, always a Chief,’” the district’s attorney Oliver Roberts wrote in the 10-page letter.
The school has a May 12 deadline to file an amended complaint in its litigation against the Empire State and is supposed to rebrand from the Chiefs by the end of June or risk losing state funding.
“While most school districts capitulated to the State’s unconstitutional assault on history and tradition, Massapequa did not. Instead, we fought back,” the letter states.
“This is not just a local issue — Massapequa is now the battleground for the preservation of our history and values nationwide,” it adds. “Without the Department’s intervention before these critical deadlines, the resulting harm to our educational institutions and cultural traditions will be irreversible.”
President Trump has said publicly he supports keeping the name Chiefs and said he would direct the Education Department to get involved. The school said the deadlines call for immediate intervention.
Massapequa has said the name Chiefs pays homage to the area’s Indigenous roots and officials contend in its suit that New York’s ban and several exemptions within it are discriminatory under the state’s Title VI as it targets Native American imagery but allows names such as the Fighting Irish or Vikings to remain in place.
Massapequa has been fighting the state Board of Regents’ 2023 ban for two years, so far with little success.
In March, a judge ruled against the school district but the battle was given a boost when Trump railed against the ban on social media.
“Forcing them to change the name, after all of these years, is ridiculous and, in actuality, an affront to our great Indian population,” Trump posted on Truth Social, adding that he would ask McMahon “to fight” for the town’s mascot.
State Department of Education spokesperson JP O’Hare told The Post that the Board of Regents adopted the policy because some Native American names and images have been shown to perpetuate negative stereotypes.
“Disrespecting entire groups of people is wrong in any context, but especially in our schools, where all students should feel welcome and supported,” O’Hare said.
He explained that districts are allowed to use Native American names and images so long as they are approved by tribal leaders — and blasted town education leaders for not engaging Indigenous leaders and a department “Mascot Advisory Committee” before suing over the matter.
John Kane, a Native activist and member of the state’s Indigenous Mascot Advisory Council, told The Post he does not approve of Massapequa’s mascot or name.
“Using people for mascots is wrong,” Kane previously told reporters. “I don’t know how you can use a stereotypical image of any group of people and not realize that it’s discriminatory.”
He pointed out that despite the district’s claims of wanting to honor the area’s heritage — the town’s mascot and logo don’t depict the correct type of Indigenous people who were native to the area.
“Massapequa uses a Plains Indian headdress for the logo even though the Algonquin would have never even looked like that,” he said.
The president, however, said that “virtually everyone in the area” is demanding the name be saved.
“The U.S. Department of Education will not stand by as the state of New York attempts to rewrite history and deny the town of Massapequa the right to celebrate its heritage in its schools,” McMahon said in a statement.
“There are several mascots that refer to indigenous or ethnic groups – the Vikings, Fighting Irish, the Cowboys – and yet New York has specifically singled out Native American heritage. We will investigate this matter fully.”
