BOSTON — Indigenous leaders took the podium in the State House this week to voice united support for five pieces of legislation filed on behalf on their communities, including bills that would say goodbye to Columbus Day in favor of Indigenous Peoples Day and bar the use of Indigenous-themed mascots in public schools.

Other legislation backed by the delegation seeks to weed out inaccurate or disparaging representations of Indigenous people from public school curriculums and ensure that Native American relics can’t be sold for profit.

State Sen. Jo Comerford said the gathering represents a growing coalition of support around expanding respect for Indigenous citizens in Massachusetts. The Northampton senator has filed two of the bills being discussed — the mascot prohibition and establishing Indigenous Peoples Day — that she believes would bring state law more up to date.

Comerford filed those bills shortly after being elected as a senator six years ago, and it remains unclear if they’ll move to a vote in the near future, though four of the five bills discussed this week have left committee with a favorable review.

“We’ll keep pressing forward,” she said.

Indigenous-themed mascots are “not ours to take,” Comerford said, adding that infinite amounts of research show that Indigenous people do not feel honored by such mascots.

“We must hear them when they say that,” she said.

Among those testifying for the bills was Melissa Ferretti, chair of the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe. She is also a representative on the state’s Mascot Steering Committee.

“Mascots do not honor Indigenous people,” Ferretti said, “They perpetuate outdated and offensive portrayals.”

“The persistence of these mascots represent deeper issues to recognize and respect indigenous identity,” she said.

Laurel Delano-Davis, a professor of sociology at Springfield College, said there are “psychological consequences” from such mascots.

According to Delano-Davis’s research, approximately 2,000 teams in the U.S. utilize Native American mascots, the majority of which are associated with schools. She says these mascots contribute to negative stereotyping.

In her research she has also said that, “Two studies even suggested that Native mascots are associated with a tendency to discriminate against Native Americans. There was no evidence from any study that Native American mascots foster positive or beneficial psychosocial effects for Native Americans.”

More than 20 states have already restricted the use of Indigenous mascots, most recently New York.

Comerford said that in addition to being racist, trivializing Indigenous people via mascots makes Indigenous people into “caricatures,” which is also harmful to white people, she said.

“It hurts white people when they’re party to that reduction of Indigenous people because racism is one-dimensional thinking,” she said.

Indigenous Peoples Day

The delegation this week were adamant that Indigenous Peoples Day should replace Columbus Day, rather than the two names co-existing, as it is in many communities.

Brittney Walley, a Nipmuc and tribal representative to the Mascot Steering Committee, testified and characterized Christopher Columbus as a perpetrator of genocide, and that his legacy leads to misunderstandings of Indigenous people and the history of the Caribbean. They are an “imperfect and incorrect history,” she said. Indigenous Peoples Day, on the other hand, provides an opportunity to celebrate “shared humanity,” Walley said.

More than 20 communities in the state have changed the day’s focus to be America’s first residents, including Northampton, Easthampton, Holyoke and Amherst.

Columbus Day is recognized by many as a day to celebrate Italian-American heritage. In the push to change the holiday, Comerford said there has been “remarkable inroads” made with the Italian-American community in support of changing the name.

Other bills

A more recently-filed bill calls for improvement in school curriculum surrounding the teaching of Native American history and culture in Massachusetts public schools. This would be done by providing students with a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the region’s Native American heritage.

There is also an act calling for the creation of a permanent commission within state government that would specifically focus on the educational needs and experiences of American Indian and Alaska Native students.

Concerning education, Jean-Luc Pierite, president of the North American Indian Center of Boston, testified that these bills are important, “for the protection of our lands, the protection of our ancestors, repatriation needs to happen to restore us, to make us whole.”

He said that “becoming whole” remains an ongoing process, and is long overdue — but the process begins with education.

“We need to stop the theft of our children, of our women, of our ancestors,” he said. “So I urge for public school curriculum, for our children, to have their stories reflected in public schools, and I urge for the protection of Native American heritage.”

There is also a bill that seeks to limit profit made on Native American relics to ensure that Native American funerary and sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony, aren’t trafficked. These objects currently rely on Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and the Archaeological Resources Protection Act for protection at the federal level.

The hybrid gathering closed with a presentation from Rhonda Anderson, the governor’s representative on the Massachusetts Seal, Flag, and Motto Advisory Commission. She announced that the state is currently accepting new emblems for the flag. The state symbols have been deemed offensive to Indigenous people, and in 2021 the Legislature established a commission to develop new designs.