The threat to withhold money from a school unless it removes its American Indian mascot prompted the U.S. Department of Education to launch a Title VI investigation against the New York Education Department.
“The Native American Guardians Association (NAGA) filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, stating that the New York Department of Education and the New York Board of Regents is violating federal civil rights law by forcing the Massapequa School District to eliminate its ‘Chiefs’ mascot based on its association with Native American culture,” the Department of Education said.
According to its website, NAGA is a nonprofit organisation that is committed to “advocating for increased education about Native Americans, especially in public educational institutions.”
“The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will assess whether New York’s threat to withhold funding if the Massapequa School District does not eliminate its Native American mascot constitutes discrimination on the basis of race and national origin,” according to a statement from the Education Department.
“The reason it is wrong” for schools to “change their Native icons is because it is a cultural genocide attempt of the anti American political left,” NAGA told The Centre Square.
“This legislative attempt violates the 14th amendment constitutionally protected civil rights of American Indians to be positively represented by schools who seek to emulate and honor Indian warrior prowess,” NAGA said.
According to NAGA, “mascot” is not the right name for what New York must be done away with.
“A mascot is a sideline entertainer dressed up like an Indian,” NAGA said. What New York means by mascot is “a Native American nickname and logo,” according to NAGA.
According to NAGA, the “loaded term’mascot’…engenders a false construct of something cartoonish,” which “bolster[s] their false narrative” of racism.
In a statement acquired by The Centre Square on April 25, JP O’Hare, spokesman for the New York State Education Department (NYSED), stated that the agency “has not received any communication from the federal government on this issue.”
“However, the U.S. Department of Education’s attempt to interfere with a state law concerning school district mascots is inconsistent with Secretary [Linda] McMahon’s March 20, 2025 statement that she is ‘sending education back to the states where it so rightly belongs,’” O’Hare said.
However, NAGA believes that the case is valid due to “constitutional civil rights protections.”
“Massapequa has already filed, and lost, a lawsuit regarding this issue,” O’Hare added in his statement.
According to O’Hare, the reason the NYSED decided to ban Indigenous names and mascots in public schools in 2023 was because they can “perpetuate negative stereotypes” that are “harmful to children.”
In a statement that The Centre Square was able to receive, Unkechaug Indian Nation Chief Harry Wallace also claimed that American Indian mascots “perpetuate racist symbolism” that harms people and that it’s “not about logic, it’s about emotion.”
However, NAGA believes that discrimination against American Indians is neither morally nor legally acceptable just because a small number of extreme Native activists, backed by their left-wing supporters, claim it is OK.
The Centre Square has not received a response from the Massapequa School District Board of Education.
“Attempts to erase Native American imagery do not advance learning – they distract from our core mission of providing a high-quality education grounded in respect, history, and community values,” stated Kerry Watcher, the board president, in a press statement issued by the Department of Education.
The “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,” stated Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in the statement.
