Lehighton Indians

I am collecting materials to send to teachers in the Lehighton School District urging them to change the name of their sports teams.  Right now they call themselves the “Indians.”  They post signs of Indians in full headdress (from tribes in the Plains) and put up tomahawks.  I doubt if more than one in ten Lehighton students knows the name of the original Indians who lived in this area.  I doubt if one in one hundred knows what happened to them after European settlers took their lands.  

I know people will say the Indians should not be offended.  They are being too sensitive.  Wrong.  We are talking about a culture that was destroyed, a people who were moved, first to Ohio, then to Oklahoma.  We are talking about a group that is barely able to keep its language alive.  And we are treating them like mascots, as a nickname for the football team?

Why not the “Lehighton Poles” or the Lehighton “Pennsylvania Germans” or the Lehighton “Bohunks” or the “Lehighton Farmers”?

If the Lehighton school district really wants to keep that name, members should contact the remaining Lenni Lenape in Oklahoma and ask how they could help the tribe.  They should ask tribal members how they could teach about the history of the tribe, and how the high school students could best learn about tribal members today. 

How about “Lehighton Tree Frogs"?  I like that one.