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There is a song on the 1969 Joni Mitchell album “Clouds” that seems to fit how I feel this week about the issue between the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and the Dowagiac Union Schools.

The song “Both Sides, Now,” is written about clouds, but could easily be applied to our current situation, which has the Pokagon Band rescinding the 1990 agreement that approved the use of the nickname “Chieftains” and Native American imagery.

When I sat down to create this week’s column, the line that popped into my head was, “I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now; From up and down, and still somehow; It’s clouds illusions I recall; l really don’t know clouds at all.”

That led me to another phrase that is also fitting: “Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.” If you are not a Native American, then you do not understand how they feel about their treatment throughout their history. And while the intentions of the Dowagiac Union Schools to honor them by using the term “Chieftains” and a logo that they feel is appropriate, they really don’t know how a vast majority of the tribe feels about it.

In the world we currently live in, division is swallowing up common sense and empathy. People no longer seek common ground, but rather pick a side, creating “Us vs. Them” on just about every topic. It just does not have to be that way.

And it should not have been this way with the Pokagon Tribe and the school district.

I grew up just down the road in Decatur, but I have lived in Dowagiac for more years than I spent there. I have come to learn just how deeply this community cares about its connection to the Pokagon Tribe. People here on both sides, now, are angry about this situation. Dowagiac Union High School graduates are proud to be known as “Chieftains” whether they are Native American or another ethnic group.

Members of the Pokagon Band feel they are being disrespected, and sometimes harmed, within the walls of the schools and by a logo that does not represent them historically. The logo that was designed as part of that 1990 agreement between the two groups is no longer used, and several others have replaced it, including the current one, which is a capital D with a headdress with a couple of feathers.

I think there has been a total lack of communication here, unlike when then Tribal Chairman Daniel Rapp and then Dowagiac Union Schools Superintendent Larry Crandall and others worked out an agreement. After speaking with members of the Pokagon’s Tribal Council and Outreach Board this week, I can understand their frustrations as they have been trying to get the school district to sit down for consultations and work on another agreement that is beneficial for everyone.

I would like to tell you how the schools feel about this current situation, but it deferred back to the letter it sent to the Pokagon Band on Aug. 9. That letter basically said there is no legal issue here and we do not see a problem. Therefore, they said they would not change the nickname or the logo.

That was a mistake. Instead, the school district should have made every effort to sit down with the Pokagon Band and hammer something out. Maybe in the end nothing would have changed, and we would be where we are today, but at least an effort would have been made and a dialog opened up between the two groups that could have continued. As of right now, just like we see all too many times in this country, there is a divide forming.

Cooler heads need to prevail here. Before things become heated — again, like so many other topics and issues in our country today — the schools and the Pokagon Band need to come together and show everyone that people from different backgrounds can work together for the common good.

The Pokagon Band, the City of Dowagiac, and the Dowagiac Union Schools have a rich tradition of standing side-by-side. Dowagiac has always embraced the tribe and its culture. Dowagiac is the home of the Pokagon Tribe, and they are proud to say that. So, now is the time for both sides to step up and begin another chapter in that rich history.

 

Scott Novak is sports editor for Leader Publications. He can be reached at scott.novak@leaderpub.com