Apr. 1—ANDERSON — As Anderson Community Schools returns from its two-week spring break, the district has begun an internal review of its Indian mascot, maiden and the pair’s basketball pregame routine.
For now, the district is only conducting an internal review of how it honors the Native American heritage of Anderson High School and the district.
Previously, ACS representative Brad Meadows told The Herald Bulletin that ACS was identifying external and internal people to be part of a review committee.
ACS hoped to have the committee start meeting within the first week of April to begin discussions about the mascot, maiden and pregame routines, according to Meadows.
While there was no external review being conducted as of Thursday, Meadows said, “We will certainly, at some point, seek input externally as well.”
Currently there is no Native American representation on the internal review committee, said Meadows, though the district plans on including Native American voices on the external committee.
The review committee was sparked by a video that was posted to TikTok in late February. It detailed the Indian mascot and maiden preforming their pregame routine and the passing of a peace pipe around a circle of cheerleaders before a boys’ basketball game.
The video has since received over 771,200 views and has led members of various Native American tribes to contact ACS to express their concerns.
Meadows noted that the district has kept in contact with the Delaware Tribe of Indians and the Delaware Nation, two federally recognized groups of Lenape people.
Assistant Chief of the Delaware Tribe of Indians, Jeremy Johnson, said that he and Chief Brad KillsCrow received email communication from ACS Superintendent Joe Cronk on Tuesday, notifying the tribe of ACS’ internal review.
In the email, Cronk stated that the recommendations and feedback from the tribe will be used during the internal review, according to Johnson.
“It…