Changes to Braves name, logo will be implemented slowly
Scoreboards, uniforms, emblems on floors and walls, flags, the outside wall of the Performing Arts Center, and more carry the Braves name or logo. It will cost more than $1 million to change them all.
Be patient and see what challenges evolve. Seek allies. Lobby for funding and an extended deadline.
Those were three main points from Monday’s District 777 Board of Education meeting on how to proceed since the December decision by three tribes and the Tribal Nation Education Committee that Benson High School cannot keep the Braves name or logo.
Supt. Dennis Laumeyer has been on the phone frequently since the vote on the school district’s appeal for an exemption to the new state law giving tribes authority over who could keep their school names and logos associated with their heritage.
“After careful review of the information submitted, the Tribal Council of the White Earth Reservation made the decision to say no regarding the exemption,” its letter stated. The Little Sioux Indian Community said the same.
“The Tribal Nation’s Education Committee has reviewed your request. The TNEC denies your exemption request for the Braves name and mascot,” its letter read.
In the one letter supporting letting the district’s exemption appeal, the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa said it had “reviewed your request…and voted to approve your request to use the Braves name and mascots for the schools in your district.”
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