{"id":34314,"date":"2021-10-14T04:00:29","date_gmt":"2021-10-14T09:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=34314"},"modified":"2021-10-14T13:15:44","modified_gmt":"2021-10-14T18:15:44","slug":"oklahoma-school-for-the-deaf-welcomes-new-more-inclusive-bison-mascot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2021\/10\/14\/oklahoma-school-for-the-deaf-welcomes-new-more-inclusive-bison-mascot\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma School for the Deaf welcomes new, more inclusive Bison mascot"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_34317\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 672px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-34317\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/mascotartchrisdvoraknathanfylstra5.5X4crop1021-1-672x489.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"672\" height=\"489\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/mascotartchrisdvoraknathanfylstra5.5X4crop1021-1-672x489.jpg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/mascotartchrisdvoraknathanfylstra5.5X4crop1021-1-1920x1397.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/mascotartchrisdvoraknathanfylstra5.5X4crop1021-1-768x559.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/mascotartchrisdvoraknathanfylstra5.5X4crop1021-1-150x109.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/mascotartchrisdvoraknathanfylstra5.5X4crop1021-1-300x218.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/mascotartchrisdvoraknathanfylstra5.5X4crop1021-1-620x451.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/mascotartchrisdvoraknathanfylstra5.5X4crop1021-1-1485x1080.jpg 1485w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/mascotartchrisdvoraknathanfylstra5.5X4crop1021-1.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 672px) 100vw, 672px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Courtesy Jody Harlan, Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oklahoma School for the Deaf superintendent Chris Dvorak (left) and Nathan Fylstra, the artist who designed the school&#8217;s new Bison logo, pose for a picture after its unveiling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 100%; height: 200px; margin-bottom: 20px; border-radius: 10px; overflow: hidden;\"><iframe style=\"width: 100%; height: 170px;\" src=\"https:\/\/player.captivate.fm\/episode\/25a89844-9f13-43c3-b9df-8d226ae808ea\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><p>John Reininger flips through the pages of old newspaper clippings about Oklahoma School for the Deaf on a crisp October afternoon.<\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He points toward old classmates and friends and even finds a picture of himself with the rest of his basketball team.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt brings back a lot of memories,\u201d Reininger told StateImpact through an interpreter. \u201cDefinitely nostalgic. So yeah. I feel very, very closely connected to OSD. It\u2019s like my second home, really.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Midwest City man\u2019s children attend here. His parents met here. He is a 2000 graduate. But there was one thing his mother Sylvia told him <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">not<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to do at school.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMy mother told me never to dress, like, in costume as an Indian, like any kind of Indian costumes,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He\u2019s a citizen of the Muscogee Nation, but he never really gave it a lot of thought. When he was a student he even took pride in the mascot.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But as an adult, he shrugs and even cringes a little bit at some of the depictions of Native people at the school\u2019s Betty Fine Museum. There are cartoonish images of a smiling Indian dribbling circles around Bugs Bunny and old pictures of white people dressed in Native regalia. It\u2019s frankly stuff that he isn\u2019t OK with now.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And he wasn\u2019t alone. There\u2019s been a community-wide realization here as well. The Indians mascot was officially retired this year and replaced with the Bison at a ceremony the same day as the school\u2019s homecoming football game (Oklahoma School for the Deaf lost a nailbiter to New Mexico School for the Deaf 59-55).\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Superintendent Chris Dvorak says last year as conversations about mascots swirled nationally, folks at the school wanted to get serious.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt really kind of came to a head where there were some serious conversations within the administration that had links to alumni,\u201d Dvorak said. \u201cAnd we just got the sense that the time is now, you know, we really need to have a serious conversation. The writing is on the wall.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_34318\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 672px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-34318\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_6538-672x504.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"672\" height=\"504\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_6538-672x504.jpeg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_6538-1920x1440.jpeg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_6538-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_6538-150x113.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_6538-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_6538-620x465.jpeg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_6538-1440x1080.jpeg 1440w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 672px) 100vw, 672px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Robby Korth \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Trudy Mitchell in her office. Mitchell led the committee to change Oklahoma School for the Deaf&#8217;s mascot from Indians to Bison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3><b>Changing the mascot<\/b><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Changing a mascot isn\u2019t an easy task. And it was gradual at Oklahoma School for the Deaf.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It started in 2016, when the school began removing imagery from logos and pivoting as much as possible to a block O with two feathers, but keeping the Indians nickname. The attitude at the time was to show greater respect to indigenous Oklahomans, Dvorak said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The attitude then, he said was \u201clet&#8217;s not make Indigenous people look like cartoons.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So the school got rid of logos and artwork around the school featuring \u201ccaricature imagery,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But 2020 changed things further. And staff members who are also alumni actually approached Dvorak about making a more drastic change.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cA hearing person&#8217;s perspective dominates the world,\u201d Dvorak said. \u201cAnd it&#8217;s a constant struggle [for deaf and hard of hearing people] to navigate that world and then to also advocate for themselves. It&#8217;s always a fight.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So the long fight to end Indegenous mascots resonated with some staff members. But he knew it would still be a difficult process. Dvorak said he wasn\u2019t going to leave the leadership of it to just anybody. So he called on Trudy Mitchell.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mitchell has a deep connection to the school too. She\u2019s been involved with it since she was a 5-year-old, minus a stint at East Central University to get her bachelor\u2019s degree.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAt first, the alumni were upset, they were angry, they didn&#8217;t want to change it,\u201d Mitchell said. And after some explanation of the reasons of considering the change, the alumni started to understand the perspective in changing it and so we can move forward from there. And so then we started collaborating on ideas.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reininger&#8217;s own mother, who told him to avoid dressing up like an Indian at school, said she wasn\u2019t a big fan of the change.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But Mitchell said, thanks to Reininger\u2019s help and a willingness of the alumni to listen, they were willing to make the change.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_34319\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 504px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-34319\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_7057-e1634151071600-504x672.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"504\" height=\"672\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_7057-e1634151071600-504x672.jpeg 504w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_7057-e1634151071600-1440x1920.jpeg 1440w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_7057-e1634151071600-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_7057-e1634151071600-113x150.jpeg 113w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_7057-e1634151071600-225x300.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_7057-e1634151071600-620x827.jpeg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_7057-e1634151071600-810x1080.jpeg 810w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 504px) 100vw, 504px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Reininger, with his son Ryjan Reininger sit together before the start of a ceremony to reveal Oklahoma School for the Deaf&#8217;s new Bison logo.<\/p>\n<\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe change is needed,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cI&#8217;m excited that it&#8217;s going to be something new, it&#8217;s going to be a new vision for our school.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In July, the Commission for Rehabilitation Services, which oversees OSD and serves as its board, unanimously voted to approve the change.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They had plenty of suggestions ranging from Tasmanian Devils, to T. Rexes, to Painted Horses to Eagles. But more than two-thirds ended up voting for Bison. The animal is native the area around Sulphur.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI like it, I think it&#8217;s cool,\u201d Reininger, who was a leader on the alumni renaming committee said. \u201cPeople who are deaf rely on things like vibrations. Thinking about herds and movements and vibrations, I think it really connects well with the deaf community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Sparking a change<\/b><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The movement in changing names has gained momentum in western states recently. State laws in Washington and Colorado passed this year are compelling schools to stop using Indigenous peoples as mascots.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Such a bill has not been introduced in Oklahoma &#8211; the state with the highest proportion of Native Americans in the lower 48.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But Native Americans have been calling for an end to Indigenous themed mascots for decades. Oklahoma\u2019s Five Tribes <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/aistm.org\/2001.civilized.tribes.htm\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">called on schools<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, \u201cto eliminate the stereotypical use of American Indian names and images as mascots in sports and other events and to provide meaningful education about real American Indian people, current American Indian issues, and the rich variety of American Indian cultures in the U.S.,\u201d 20 years ago. The National Congress of American Indians has led a yearslong campaign with an entire <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncai.org\/proudtobe\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dedicated webpage<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the movement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Education Services executive director for Cherokee Nation Corey Bunch said mascot names are harmful.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe chants from opposing teams and the slogans that kind of go are associated with the mascots and the imagery they can quickly get carried away,\u201d Bunch said. \u201cAnd they just don&#8217;t represent Native people well.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He said the calls for mascot changes are important. He prefers to work with school districts who actually want to listen.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cCertainly, Cherokee Nation nor other tribal nations are out twisting anybody&#8217;s arm, telling them that they ought to change their mascots,\u201d Bunch said. \u201cBut when we are asked we are certainly happy to participate.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bunch has participated in the process with a couple of districts lately: Tulsa Public Schools and Tulsa Union Public Schools.<\/span><\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kosu.org\/education\/2021-09-08\/tulsas-union-public-schools-considers-two-mascot-options\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tulsa Union<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> recently announced it would change its nickname to either Redhawks or Bison based on a student vote.<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/tulsaworld.com\/news\/local\/education\/tps-seeking-mascot-input-on-webster-central-middle-high-schools\/article_6029da1e-1bd8-11ec-bcb8-7ba4ec01b8ec.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Tulsa Public Schools<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is in the early stages of looking at other mascots at its schools as well.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Will Oklahoma School for the Deaf\u2019s decision help spark a change in Oklahoma? It\u2019s difficult to say. A StateImpact review of mascots in Oklahoma districts found almost 80 still use mascots and nicknames that evoke Indigenous imagery..<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ultimately, Bunch said, it\u2019s about ensuring that Native students are respected.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe don&#8217;t want them to be ashamed for any reason to just be the people that they are,\u201d Bunch said. \u201cAnd you know, it would be a shame if they do have these negative feelings simply because of how mascots are portrayed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_34321\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 672px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-34321\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_6582-672x504.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"672\" height=\"504\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_6582-672x504.jpeg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_6582-1920x1440.jpeg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_6582-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_6582-150x113.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_6582-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_6582-620x465.jpeg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2021\/10\/IMG_6582-1440x1080.jpeg 1440w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 672px) 100vw, 672px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Robby Korth \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Bison statue outside Sulphur City Hall. Oklahoma School for the Deaf has been located in the south central Oklahoma city since 1908.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Reininger flips through the pages of old newspaper clippings about Oklahoma School for the Deaf on a crisp October afternoon.He points toward old classmates and friends and even finds a picture of himself with the rest of his basketball team.\u201cIt brings back a lot of memories,\u201d Reininger told StateImpact through an interpreter. \u201cDefinitely nostalgic. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":209,"featured_media":34316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34314"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34314"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34331,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34314\/revisions\/34331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}