WISCASSET, Maine — Leaders of the Penobscot Nation are considering legal action against the town of Wiscasset after the Board of Selectmen agreed to allow the term “redskin” to be used in the name of a private road.
Wiscasset selectmen voted 3-1 on Aug. 19 to approve a property owner’s request to assign the name “Redskin’s Drive” to a short private road off Bradford Road. The decision came three years after the town’s new school district angered many residents by changing the Wiscasset High School mascot from Redskins to Wolverines. Selectmen who voted to approve the road name said they did so as a show of support for the former high school mascot, with one saying, “it’s part of our heritage.”
Penobscot Nation Chief Kirk Francis and former chief Jim Sappier both sent letters to three town officials, expressing “disappointment” in the decision to allow the road name and urging town officials to reverse it.
“The history and origin of this word is a particularly painful one for Wabanaki,” Francis wrote in a Sept. 4 letter emailed to Pam Dunning,Tim Merry and Jefferson Slack, three members of the town’s five-person Board of Selectmen. “It represents a reminder of a time when our people were hunted by settlers, our bodies and scalps sold to the Commonwealth. The 1755 Spencer Phips Proclamation placed a bounty specifically on my people, the Penobscot, offering payment of up to 50 pounds for each man, woman and child. When scalps were brought in for payment, they were referred to as ‘redskins.’”
Sappier, now a member of the Penobscot Elder Council, wrote in a separate letter to Dunning, Merry and Slack that he believes the road name “is based completely on racism.”
In his letter, Francis asked selectmen to “reflect on and overturn” their decision. If that does not happen, lawyers are evaluating whether a potential human rights complaint would be filed in federal or state court, Francis told the BDN on Thursday.
“We really want this issue to be taken seriously,” Francis said.
Town officials had not responded to the letters as of Thursday, the chief said.
On Wednesday, Wiscasset Town Manager Marian Anderson said she was surprised to hear of the letters. Selectmen did not discuss the letters — or any related issue — at a Tuesday night meeting, according to Anderson.
“There’s been no mention of it,” she said. “No discussion of any kind.”
Selectman Bill Barnes, who voted in favor of allowing the name, was the only member of the board who responded to requests for comment Wednesday or Thursday. Phone calls to the other four members of the board were not returned.
Barnes said he had heard about the letters but had not yet seen them. He defended the board’s decision and said he does not see the word as derogatory or racist.
“I think the Indians are an incredible race,” Barnes said. “Everything that’s been done to them as far as what the white people have done, I’m sorry. I think the Indians need to be kept in the forefront so they don’t ever have to worry about having anything done to them again. I certainly have no intention of having any bad feelings for the Indians.”
Francis said Barnes’ response showed a lack of understanding.
“When you look at the term ‘Redskin,’ there is no more derogatory term than that,” Francis said. “We’re not a people that needs to be remembered by historically abusive names and derogatory terms.”
Francis pointed to studies by the American Psychological Association that show the detrimental effect of the term on the self-esteem of Indian youth, and cited statistics that indicate the suicide rate among Native American young people has increased 65 percent in 10 years. He called the issue a “public health risk.”
He also likened the use of the term to racial slurs uttered by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
“They all felt that was perfectly OK,” he said. “If anyone was using [slurs] toward Jewish or African American people, it would be totally unacceptable and not tolerated.”
Francis said he was disappointed to learn of the road name, given the time he spent in Wiscasset trying to educate the community about why using “redskin” as a school mascot was offensive. But he said the Penobscot Nation, and potentially other tribes, would not let this decision stand.
“We’re weighing our options,” he said. “As a federal Indian tribe, and with these things being very much on the minds of the U.S. Congress … this could potentially be a federal claim for the tribe,” he said. “But they’re also a state municipality. Our lawyers are evaluating all of that.”