Up to date
1:14 am CDT, Tuesday, July 28, 2020
BAYARD, N.M. (AP) — A graduate of a southwestern New Mexico highschool is combating the state’s lieutenant governor over his name to take away a baseball stadium’s brand of a Native American caricature.
Samantha “Sami” Morales has began a petition aimed toward preserving the “Chief Wahoo” brand from the primary signal at Cobre Excessive’s baseball stadium in Bayard, New Mexico, the Deming Headlight experiences.
She mentioned the brand is a supply of pleasure locally.
“My father and workers from the mine worked hard on that stadium, and it is something our community can be proud of,” Morales mentioned.
Lt. Gov. Howie Morales lately requested the Cobre Consolidated Faculty District superintendent to take away the brand amid racial injustice protests throughout the U.S.
The same brand was utilized by Main League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians till 2018.
The brand is offensive to some Native People.
“This cartoonish caricature of a Native American in the signage of our own local baseball stadium, used and visited by countless students and families, sends the wrong message to our young people,” the lieutenant governor wrote in a letter earlier this month to Superintendent Robert Mendoza. “In short, it is time for the Chief Wahoo to go.”
Howie Morales coached Cobre’s baseball group to a state title in 2008 and retired shortly after, as he grew to become a state senator representing District 28.
The lieutenant governor mentioned the varsity’s athletic groups, referred to as the Indians, have a brand new brand that isn’t Chief Wahoo, however there’s been no replace to the stadium signal.
“The Chief Wahoo logo clearly causes anguish and frustration for many people, especially Native Americans across the United States,” Morales wrote.
Samantha Morales, a 2014 graduate of Cobre Excessive Faculty, mentioned she does not agree. She mentioned she and one other graduate have collected over 750 signatures on a web based petition.
“I follow (the lieutenant governor’s) postings and I wondered why he wanted the mascot removed now. Why didn’t he pursue this when he coached here back in the 2000s?” she advised the Headlight.
