In the spirit of the government-to-government relationship, we — along with other Oregon tribes — went to the Legislature to seek a solution. The legislation that resulted kept the Board of Education's original ban of mascots in place while allowing for a federally recognized tribe and a local school district to continue to use a mascot if they could agree on proper uses and culturally appropriate imagery. The agreement also affords us the ability to work with those school districts to adopt a tribal curriculum for students specific to Oregon's nine recognized tribes.

We have heard from Native Americans who belong to tribes outside of Oregon who believe all Indian mascots should be banned. We respect their opinions and are open to hearing from them as we work with school districts to craft future agreements. We ask them to trust that we will make the right decisions in determining what is culturally appropriate with respect to a tribal mascot.

Be assured, the days of comic and denigrating representations of Native Americans are over.