And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 23:09:21 EST
>Subject: Press Release
>X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Windows 95 sub 230
>
>The following is a reprint of the official news release from the Buncome
>County Intertribal Assoc. Please feel free to present to any and all news
>agencies that you wish. This will help extend the message that Indians Are
>Human Not Mascots
>
>for more information contact Don and Pat Merzlak 828 254-0010
> Bruce Two Eagles 828
>683-1889
> Email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Web Page Info www.main.nc.us/wncceib/
>
>
> American Indians Welcome Justice Department Probe
>
> "We hope this will stimulate the Buncombe County Board of Education to
>end the Indian mascots at Erwin High School" said Don Merzlak today in a
>response to news that the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice
Department
>has opened an investigation into possible discrimination against Indians at
>the Buncombe County school. Merzlak is an Elder for the Buncombe County
Native
>American Intertribal Association.
> "On June 12th 1998 after meeting with school board officials monthly
>for nearly a year, they told us the issue was dead and they would not apply
>their own Nondiscrimination Policy to this issue. We went home that day
and my
>wife Pat wrote a letter of complaint to the Justice Dept., "continued Merzlak
>who has had five children from Erwin and two more in primary school. "We had
>contacted the Justice Dept. earlier but agreed we would try to work with the
>school board first.After maintaining our composure despite racial slurs and
>comments from some school officials and seeing they had broken off
>negotiations, we submitted the complaint. We are really grateful the Justice
>Department has responded and we hope others affected across North Carolina
and
>the nation will send complaints to the Justice Department"
> Merzlak's wife,Pat, added that she hopes"it will mean that my younger
>children will have to go through what the older ones did from stereotypes and
>comments. It will also mean that non-Indian children will be freed from
basing
>their ideas about Indians and Indian culture on violent and derogatory
>stereotypes of Indian Mascots".
> The Intertribal Association points to support for change from many
>churches,organizations,and individuals,and from 95% of the Erwin
faculity,from
>Governor Jim Hunt,from the NC Commission of Indian Affairs,from Tom Sobol
>Chairman of the County Commissioners,and from County Commissioner and teacher
>in the system,Patsy Keever. We want to thank the fair minded people of out
>area who have written and phoned School Board members in the past months. The
>board will discuss this in closed session on February 4th so now is not the
>time to be silent,"said Pat Merzlak. She added that even the Board Chair, the
>superintendent, and the Erwin principal had told us they would like to see
>change, but it just has not happened.
> Intertribal Association leaders also raised concerns about what they
feel
>is the unnecessarily confrontational tone of the School Board Attorney Walter
>Currie. "He seems to think this is a win-lose situation and it is not. The
>only ones who will really win or lose are the children of our community. We
>hope the Board will embrace this opportunity to set an example for the state
>and the nation,"said Bruce Two Eagles also of the Intertribal Association.
> Currie told the Asheville Citizen Times January 26th that the School
>Board might not respond to certain Justice Department questions like the race
>of the Board members or the date and the time the 25 foot statue of an Indian
>was erected at the high school."We worry that the Board's lawyer and not
>elected Board itself is setting the tone of this issue,"said Two Eagles He
>also noted that separate from the Justice Department investigation, the
>Association has retained a Missouri lawyer who has written a letter of intent
>to sue the School Board. "We are not pleased with the antagonistic tone or
the
>level of cooperation from the Board's attorney to try and work out a
>resolution with our lawyer,"said Two Eagles
> Two Eagles added,"They have already spent several thousand dollars on
>legal fees, for what? So our School Board will be known as the 1990s version
>of Lester Maddox standing in front of the school with ax handles to stop the
>roll of history toward fairness for all citizens?"
>
> "Little Black Sambo was dispensed with long ago"said Don Merzlak."Now it
>is history's moment to do the same with 'Little Red Sambo'.He continued,"The
>School Board is getting ready to ask us taxpayers for millions of dollars for
>a bond issue for the schools. Our kids are in those schools but it is
going to
>be hard to support that bond issue when they are paying their lawyer $100 an
>hour to perpetuate racism with our tax money. They need to embrace change and
>set example that the community can be proud of."
> Pat Merzlak added,"We believe that the Erwin faculty,students,and the
>community will come through this time with a better mascot and more school
>pride and more united than ever before. Erwin deserves the best."
> The School Board allowed a May 1998 vote of the Erwin student body to
>determine the fate of the mascots. Although less than half voted to keep the
>mascot, that 41% was more than any one of the other options and the Board let
>the issue die.
> Added Two Eagles,"They have a Nondiscrimination Policy that mandates
>'respect for differing cultures',but they have ignored that policy. it is
>ironic that just after we celebrate DR, Martin Luther King's birthday, the
>Buncombe County Board of Education is refusing to honor basic respect for the
>children in our school system. We objected from voting on racism in the first
>the beginning. we asked them over and over,'what if the vote doesn't remove
>the mascots?' They seemed confident it would and gave us the impression that
>whatever happened, they would do the right thing at the end of the day. Well,
>the sun's going down and they still have a chance. We hope they will act."
>
>Please forward to all that may be interested
>Thank you Bruce
>
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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