• Cleveland holds assembly to honor Native American community

    5/7/2019
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    RISE assembly

    Cleveland High School held its first RISE assembly to honor Native American communities. (Photo by Beth Conyers)

    Cleveland High School held an assembly to honor its Native American community and recognize the past, present and future of its relation to the school. The event was called RISE, for Reclaiming Indigenous Identity through Solidarity and Education, and held May 2 in the school auditorium.

    Guests included Native American performers and speakers from tribes in Oregon, Washington, Idaho. Montana, Wisconsin and Alaska. The event was organized by the Cleveland Alliance for Racial Equity and was part of school’s “decolonization process” to acknowledge its past, which includes examples of cultural appropriation. In 1988, the school changed its mascot from Indians to Warriors, and the name of its student newspaper from the Tomahawk to the Clarion.

    The school has also announced a new name for its dance team, which will now be called Tenacity. The team had previously been called the Sundancers, a name that remained through the change to Warriors. However, Native American students voiced concerns regarding the former dance team name, arguing that sundancing is sacred in several Plains tribes.

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