Vancouver Public Schools Retires Chieftain Mascot

VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) – The Vancouver Public Schools Board of Directors has unanimously voted to stop using the chieftain name and mascot at a high school and an elementary school.

The Columbian reports board members voted Tuesday after last month expressing their desire to end the use of the image of a Native American chief in a feathered headdress.

Local tribal leaders urged the school board to stop using the image, and more than 1,700 people signed a petition opposing its continued use.

The mascot has been controversial for decades and came back into the spotlight recently by renewed national conversations about racial justice.