The Ketchikan school district has launched an investigation after the high school pep squad dressed in cowboy hats and boots for a game against the Metlakatla Chiefs, eliciting raw emotions and condemnation from Alaska’s only Native reserve.
The Ketchikan school district has launched an investigation after the local high school pep squad dressed in cowboy hats and boots for a basketball game against the Metlakatla Chiefs, eliciting raw emotions and condemnation from community members in Alaska’s only Native American reserve.
The Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District, Ketchikan High School and school board chairman Stephen Bradford were quick to apologize on social media after the game, calling it an incident of “cultural insensitivity.” In coming up with the theme for Saturday’s game, the pep club had in mind “square dancing, farming, flannels, and hats,” one student said. But Indigenous scholars and leaders point to the history of harm embodied in the cowboy image.
The members of the team and its coaches were absent from the meeting Monday, as they were in Kodiak for another basketball game. Members of the Ketchikan pep club say they did not realize the country theme they chose for the event would be offensive, nor did they realize that the barking sounds they make during free throws would be construed as racially insensitive.
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