Copyright © 1999 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

"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 faculty, 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 1990's 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."