CRANBERRY TWP — Mike Manipole remembers painting the “Raider” face on the Rowan Elementary School gym floor alongside students when he was first hired at Seneca Valley School District as a physical education teacher.

The face and the act of painting were something he and his students took pride in.

Years later, however, Manipole applauded the district retiring the mascot and other Native American-related imagery.

“Our district stays ahead of time or tries to keep up with the times, so I applaud them for seeing this in a sensitive manner and making changes they see as necessary,” Manipole said. “I know so many students said 'maybe it is time for a change.'”

Manipole's shift, in a way, represents the way Seneca Valley community members view the district's decision Monday to retire its Native American-depicting mascot and imagery.

Many Seneca Valley community members see the Raider mascot as emblematic of the district.

Another faction thinks it's well past due that the district honor the current wishes of American Indians who view mascots as derogatory.

When the Evans City and Zelienople high schools merged 60 years ago, the students settled on the Seneca Valley High School name to honor the Native American history of the region, and dubbed their mascot the Raider.Seneca Nation Chief Hanging Feather supported the students' effort to name the school Seneca Valley, and was later present at the high school's groundbreaking ceremony in 1963.The continued depiction of an American Indian for the school's mascot, as well as the imagery of Native Americans throughout the district, both grabs onto and respects both the Seneca people and the past, some community members argued.“I don't see anything wrong with them using the imagery or mascot,” 2001 alumna Crystal Marburger said. “It just shows that we are honoring them.”To some, changing the mascot is tantamount to scrubbing from the region's history the contributions of Native Americans.“We're canceling history. We're canceling tradition,” said Tom Donaldson, a 1970 Seneca Valley alumnus. “These people coming in from other areas, they don't like our culture so they shove theirs down our throat.”Other Seneca Valley community members invoked the district's motto — “Proud of the past, committed to the future” — to critique Seneca Valley school directors' Monday vote.

Much has changed since 1963, and that includes many Native Americans' views of Indigenous peoples being depicted for mascots and related imagery.The National Congress of American Indians, for example, campaigns against the “derogatory and harmful stereotypes of Native people — including sports mascots — in media and popular culture,” and boasts it began that initiative in 1968.In fact, the national congress maintains a database of K-12 schools that use “Native 'themed' school mascots.” As of June 8, the database shows, more than 1,000 U.S. school districts used such mascots — even after a dozen districts retired theirs thus far in 2021, including three in Pennsylvania.The Seneca Nation of Indians, too, has come out against the use of Native American depictions for mascots and imagery.“Like all Native people, the Seneca people have seen and suffered the indignity of having our language and culture stripped from us, and our spirit and heritage and race assaulted time and again,” Seneca Nation president Rickey L. Armstrong Sr. said. “That is not something that should be celebrated in the name of sportsmanship nor used to identify the character and spirit of a school community.”For some community members, honoring the wishes of the Seneca people and other Native American groups is something the district should have done.Jayme Gordon, a 2007 alumna, said while she didn't think of the potential racial implications of the mascot while she was in school, she thinks the district retiring the imagery at the request of groups representing American Indians is appropriate.“With the school working with local Native American groups and listening to what they have to say about a mascot depicting them, I don't see how anyone could be against this,” Gordon said. “If we stop to think about our history with Native Americans and what we have done in the past, listening and honoring them in this way is really the least we could do.”“I'm a traditionalist, and I like names that have meaning,” Manipole said. “In honor of Native Americans who settled our area, I always thought the Seneca Valley Raider thing was pretty cool. But I'm not Native American, and it's unfair for me to say that, so I applaud the district” for retiring the mascot at the behest of Native people.Others, though, think what's done is done.“I feel that if the Seneca Indians had a problem using anything of their heritage that it would have never been used, and there is no reason to change things to suit the new students or alumni in any way,” Marburger said.