To the editor:

A lot of Dartmouth residents are very shocked to hear that the Dartmouth Indian logo is under assault. The first question they ask is, how did we get here? 

This is what I tell them. In early 2019, School Committee member and professor Dr. Shannon Jenkins began her now three-year crusade to cancel the Dartmouth Indians.

In October 2019, the school committee was informed that the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) was interested in discussing a first-of-its-kind formal partnership with the school department that would preserve the Indians symbol while establishing educational and cultural programing opportunities for students and residents that aimed to enhance and preserve our local indigenous history.

This seemed to effect Dr. Jenkins as she rolled her eyes on live T.V. during this public meeting when she was informed of this proposal. Ever since this proposal, the professor seemed to have little tolerance for anyone who took this same view even members of the Wampanoag Tribe who supported keeping the symbol.

Despite the world shutting down during the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Jenkins swiftly and quietly continued her systematic crusade to cancel the Indians. While Dartmouth’s teachers, students and parents were navigating a new world of challenges that involved remote learning, social distancing, canceled social and scholastic activities and downright fear. 

Instead of focusing all her attention on these critical issues our children were facing, Dr. Jenkins saw this moment as an opportunity to make monumental change while the public was preoccupied.

In December 2020, at the peak of the pandemic, Dr. Jenkins was finally able to create a vehicle that was carefully assembled to usher in the progressive values she so desperately wanted to introduce to our town, starting with canceling Indians—the diversity subcommittee. Most of the appointed members of the diversity subcommittee, all academics, were cherry picked by Dr. Jenkins. There was inclusion of like minded thinkers but certainly no diversity of opinions, not even a tribal voice.

A diversity subcommittee without diversity. 

The cherry picked subcommittee had one agenda item: cancel the Indian at all costs. They had sparse assistance from several higher-ed professors from the local university who would chime in from time to time with op-eds detailing questionable studies and throwing insults at those who wanted to maintain the symbol.

Over the course of 2021, the unelected subcommittee met virtually, in the privacy of their own homes, with zero public participation.

Despite being on notice that the iteration of the Indian symbol was authored by federally recognized Wampanoag Tribal member and D.H.S. alumnus (class of ’74) Clyde Andrews, the professor not once invited him or any tribal member to offer testimony. The professor never once corrected the record that the symbol was drafted by a federally recognized Wampanoag member and not once did she recognize him for his contributions.

Not until July 12, 2021. On that day, the professor’s elaborate plan to quietly cancel the Indians hit a roadblock when the Chairwoman of the Wampanoag (Aquinnah) Cheryl Andrews-Maltais wrote a letter defending the Indians symbol and invited the school department to engage in formal discussions before any action could be taken on removal of the honorable Indian symbol.

For months, the School Committee failed to respond. Does this sound like diversity and inclusion to you?

From October 2021 to January 2022, the fate of the Indian symbol seemed to hinge on one swing vote on the school committee — Ms. Kathleen Amaral. Her colleagues Dr. Jenkins and Ms. Mary Waite were already on record for expelling the Indians to the fate of cancel culture. I’m pleased that school committee members Mr. John Nunes and Mr. Chris Oliver attempted to affirm our symbol despite the headwinds of national political pressures felt here in our town.

With our Indians symbol potentially one vote away from being canceled, the Select Board unanimously voted in favor of supporting a non-binding referendum question that will appear on the April 5, 2022 annual town election ballot.  For the first time since 2019, the people of Dartmouth will finally have a voice on this matter.   

As a last-ditch effort, less than five weeks prior to the referendum, the professor has strategically scheduled a “tribal” forum on March 8, 2022.

Regrettably, Dr. Jenkins has once again cherry picked her invitees to this forum, stacking the deck with people from out-of-town who she has identified agrees with her on this issue.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Clyde Andrews and the many other Wampanoags who reside in Dartmouth were not invited by the professor to attend. 

Who was invited? What are the parameters that were set for this forum? Who is allowed to speak? Will speakers be required to identify the town in which they reside? Will the school department be checking for federally recognized identification cards? Are only tribal government leaders allowed to speak? The professor has refused to answer any of these questions.

Her only shot at canceling our symbol is to now muddy the waters and cause tribal infighting weeks before the April 5 referendum.

Dr. Jenkins would rather listen to an unrecognized tribe from Illinois than listen to the federally recognized tribal members who live in town, went to Dartmouth schools, who designed the symbol and still support the symbol. Over the past year, the professor has verbally downplayed the federal recognition status of the sovereign nation of the Wampanoag (Aquinnah) while giving unrecognized tribes who 'claim' certain lands her sole attention simply because of the competing positions of the tribes. Dr. Jenkins intends to cancel the Indians symbol.

After three years, it is clear Dr. Jenkins is only interested in listening to a select few in academia who share her worldview, a sentiment she tweeted on her public Twitter account on both August 13 and 15 of 2020:  The Indian symbol is racist and those who support it are racist. Maybe Dr. Jenkins can do a little research on the UMass Dartmouth Corsair mascot. I'm certain she'll find that a Corsair was certainly not a model citizen of the times.  

The residents of Dartmouth deserve better.

The Wampanoags who were born and raised in Dartmouth, who raised their families in this town, and who attended school here deserve better. Despite the three-year crusade by Dr. Jenkins, I am hopeful that the people of Dartmouth will overwhelmingly reject her worldview and reaffirm the Dartmouth Indians at the annual town election on April 5, 2022.

I'm also hopeful for a lasting formal partnership between the town and the Tribe that has a lasting impact on our shared history and our shared future that has yet to be written.

George Marcotte,

Dartmouth