The CCIA board voted to approve the list in September, and no schools have been added since then. The older report identified 30 schools with Native American mascots and urged them to change a couple schools on the list have since closed and a few changed their mascots before the bill took effect.

In July, it published a list of more than two dozen schools taken from the 2016 report of the Governor’s Commission to Study American Indian Representation in Public Schools. The law states that within 30 days of its enactment in June 2021, the CCIA must identify schools using banned American Indian mascots and publish the list on its website. The Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs is committed to implementing SB21-116 and partnering with schools to ensure their compliance with the law.” Creating a list The governor’s press office, which handles questions for CCIA, did not answer questions about the process, saying that “SB21-116 does not provide guidance for extending the deadline for public schools to come into compliance beyond June 1, 2022. (William Woody, Special to The Colorado Sun)Īdding schools to the list as the deadline approaches is the latest issue that has left schools and districts demanding more communication and guidance from the CCIA. Schools out of compliance with state law prohibiting the use of Native American imagery have been advised to cover up trophy cases containing objects with the offensive logos. Montrose High School varsity football team memorabilia on display in a trophy case at Montrose High School on Monday morning. He said he called Redhorse and officials with the state Attorney General’s Office on Tuesday and was told that the school could do such things as cover up trophies and other memorabilia that have Thunderbird images, remove banners and have students wear uniforms inside out to conceal Thunderbird images. He said he was not notified by CCIA of the April 6 discussion. “This puts us between a rock and a hard place - we’re not on the list now but do we start making changes? If we don’t respond now and we get on there we don’t have a lot of time for compliance.”

“If you’re going to put us on there this late in the day, give us a little time to make the changes,” said David Crews, superintendent of Sangre de Cristo School District in Mosca, which adopted the Thunderbirds mascot when two San Luis Valley districts merged in 1960.

And it’s unclear when they could be removed from the list as CCIA has taken votes to do so only at its quarterly meetings. If any schools are added, it would give them less than two weeks to get rid of any imagery of the mascot, which some say is unreasonably short notice. The May meeting is the last chance this year for the 12 schools still on a list released last summer to be removed. Meet Colorado’s Congressional delegation.Colorado schools face $25K monthly fine for their “Thunderbird” mascots Close

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