Final voting to replace the Indian mascot ends October 22

Arely Demetrio Palacios, Staff writer|October 17, 2019

After over a century, the Armijo Indian will be retired and replaced with a new symbol.

Update: The final run-off vote for the future mascot continues through Tuesday, October 22. Students and staff received an email giving them the opportunity to choose from the final three mascots: Knights, Ravens and Royals,

Earlier this year, upon the recommendation of a committee made up of Armijo students, alumni and other community members, the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District (FSUSD) School Board decided that the Armijo Indian, the mascot that had served the school since the early years, was no longer suitable for that purpose.

This move to change the names of sports teams and school mascots has been going on for several years. In the 1970s, Dartmouth College pushed away from their unofficial Indian mascot and adopted a name based on one of their school colors. They are now referred to as Big Green. But the majority of the name changes began in the first decade of this century, with the help of an organization supporting American Indians not as mascots, but as people. (To know more about their mission, go to  http://www.ncai.org/proudtobe.)

Across the country, it has been deemed that people groups in general are not appropriate as mascots, or symbols. According to Wikipedia, mascots are generally considered a common public identity to represent a school name or you can also say that it is a person, animal or an object that brings luck.

With this decision, it has become necessary for the school to select a new mascot, something that will represent the school and the student population for decades to come.  According to Mr. Brad Burzynski, a vice principal at Armijo and a member of the committee making the recommendation, current students and teachers will be able to vote on campus starting this week in an online poll to rename the school. Names that have been suggested, in seriousness and in jest, include Eagles, Armadillos, A’s, Cougars and more.

Voting closes on Wednesday, October 2. The result of the voting will be announced on Thursday, October 24, at an FSUSD School Board meeting.

 

A little bit of Armijo history: The school itself was named for a Hispanic family of local landowners who gave permission to build the school and use their name. The most common pronunciation of the school name has been Anglicized, but it is still often mispronounced.