Monday, February 10, 2025
A new bill in the State Senate could allow the Wantagh School District to retain its Warriors nickname — and possibly its logo.
Introduced on Jan. 8, Senate Bill 2025-S717 would exempt the district from laws, rules and regulations regarding the use of Indigenous names, mascots and logos. A resolution adopted by the State Board of Regents in 2023 requires school districts to remove Indigenous images and references by the end of the 2024-25 school year.
The bill is sponsored by State Sen. Steve Rhoads, who has argued that the Warriors name, logo and imagery honor Wantagh’s history. In a 2023 letter to State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa, Rhoads emphasized the importance of Indigenous tribes to the history of Wantagh.
“Here on Long Island, where much of the land was originally occupied by Indigenous tribes — which continue to be an important part of our history and legacy — the heavy-handed and arbitrary universal application of this regulation results in the devaluing of that history,” Rhoads wrote.
The bill asserts that the Warriors name and logo honor the history of Chief Wantagh, a Grand Sachem of the Montaukett tribe, who signed a 1657 compact resolving land disputes in what is now Wantagh. The community was renamed in his honor in 1891, and the school district adopted the Warriors name in 1956 as a tribute.
The bill notes that the State Board of Regents’ mandate fails to account for Wantagh’s unique history, with a name celebrating Indigenous legacy rather than denigrating it, and that a request by the district to retain and rebrand the Warriors name was denied without explanation.
“The choice of the Wantagh Warriors was not an attempt to be trite, catchy or offensive,” the bill states. “It was chosen to honor their past — not as conquerors or as pilgrims but as a proud community celebrating the history upon which they founded their town.”
As of press time, the bill was being reviewed in the Senate Education Committee.
Wantagh Superintendent John McNamara said the district is awaiting the outcome of a lawsuit it filed in New York’s Eastern District Court in September 2023 against the Board of Regents, challenging the constitutionality of the resolution.
According to the suit, the district plans to change mascots and logos to remove any Native American-associated imagery, but is seeking to retain the Warriors nickname, which the suit describes as a universal cultural symbol, not solely a Native American one.
McNamara said the district remains hopeful it will retain the nickname.
“Regardless of the decision, the district is prepared to respond appropriately,” he said in an emailed statement to the Herald on Jan. 22. “Last year, a district mascot committee met and provided recommendations to the Board of Education for both potential outcomes.”
Those outcomes were finalized in May, when the committee —composed of teachers, students and administrators — revealed its recommendations for new nicknames and imagery on the district’s website. One recommendation was to replace the old logo, a profile of a Native American, with a trident, representing Wantagh’s proximity to the ocean. Other recommendations for a nickname and mascot included the Titans, Wolves and Wolverines.
Failure to comply with the mascot mandate after the deadline could result in the loss of state aid, though schools can apply for an extension if they demonstrate their intent to remove Indigenous references.
Despite the history of the district’s nickname, not everyone agrees that it honors the legacy of Indigenous figures. The Shinnecock Nation, one of the oldest self-governing tribes in the state, said the use of names, logos and mascots implying references to Indigenous cultures is insulting, and dehumanizes Native people and their traditions.
“Mascots of a people or culture is not an honoring,” Josephine Smith, director of the Cultural Resources Department of the Shinnecock Nation, said in a statement. “Indigenous people are not things to bring good luck, are not fictional characters, and are not to be used to represent your town, school, sports team, organization, or business.”
According to Smith, the use of Indigenous references does not teach respect for ethnicity and culture, though there are ways to appropriately do so.
“Honor the Native people of an area by acknowledging the land, waters, and people of an area,” Smith said. “Honor the Native people of an area by teaching curriculum developed with Native people of the area.”
