How can we help in an effort to change the mascot of a North Haven (Conn.) high school away from the “Indians”? An alumnus, Talia Gallagher, who is now a student at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. started a petition campaign to change the name. She’s going to present it to the local Board of Education in March. The details are at this Facebook page.

Word got out and there have been a number of reports in the media and inevitably opposition. Here’s an entry in an opposing Facebook page called “North Haven Indians Pride.”

“Where did our Indian mascot come from? It was to honor the Indians of North Haven. The indian symbol in our mascot is the look of chief Montowese who we lived with here in North Haven,” they posted. “Our Mascot is to honor the memory of the North Haven Indian tribes, not to poke fun or to discriminate. The American settlers of North Haven lived with the Indians, we worked together."

Oh yes, New Haven settlers lived with the Indians. That’s why the colony of Connecticut allowed all Quinnipiac land to be sold off as early as 1695, about 90 years before the town of North Haven was incorporated. Honor the memory of the tribes? Give me a break. Mascots are chosen to be fierce or funny or exotic. You think it would be honoring memory if a Berlin Germany soccer team was called “the Jews?”