Culturally insensitive ribbons distributed to Spiro school students

SPIRO, Okla. (KNWA/KFTA) — Ribbons showing culturally insensitive imagery that read, “Bulldogs scalp the Indians, let’s go get ’em” printed on the front, were distributed to Spiro school students for the football game against the Pocola Indians.

“I am a former student from Spiro so that’s why it bothers me, and that’s why I don’t think this is OK to keep happening, especially if there’s going to be a continuous amount of native children going to this school,” Jade Cossey said.

Cossey, who is a Choctaw Chickasaw, was shocked to see students from Spiro schools in Oklahoma with it.

“The saying bothers me because we’re trying to break stereotypes about Native people, and more people are just saying it’s just a ribbon and stuff like that,” said Cossey. “But how are we going to break stereotypes when stuff like that keeps popping up? And us as a native community, we want to move forward from that, and we want to educate others about what we really are, who we stand for.”

Spiro alumna Ann Louise Howerton believes the school didn’t need to make racial remarks and could’ve said something else on the ribbon instead.

“It would have been very clever and a play on Spiros Bulldog Pride if they would have been like, oh, take him to the pound,” Howerton said.

Both Gabriel Rasha’s and Brittni Simpson’s sons came home with the ribbons.

“He was excited to see it and all,” Rasha said.

When Simpson saw the ribbon, she remembered seeing the same one when she was in fourth grade.

“It was actually a fellow classmate of mine who made this ribbon. Parents were mad about it then. Teachers were mad about it then. And we’ve recirculated it in 2024. It’s insensitive. We’ve come too far to go backward,” Simpson said. “We have too many Native American students in our school, in our town. We have Choctaw housing literally circles the school right here. We have Choctaw funding at this school. It’s just disgusting, honestly,” Simpson said.

Rasha and Simpson had to teach their sons why the picture and words on the ribbon were inaccurate.

Rasha thinks the school should take the opportunity to inform their educators.

“I want them to kind of just reach out to cultural educators Choctaw Nation, Cherokee Nation do have like cultural programs,” Rasha said.

According to oldwest.org , scalping (removing the scalp, totally or in part by force) was considered only a Native American practice which created negative stereotypes towards them.

In the 1960s and 1970s, scholars and writers began to question if scalp-taking was introduced by Europeans which then started to demolish those stereotypes of Native Americans.

Cossey hopes nothing like this happens again.

“I wouldn’t want other native children to deal with this or go through this,” Cossey said.

Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Chief Gary Batton sent KNWA/FOX24 a statement.

For many years, Native people have been characterized with inaccurate and offensive depictions of our history and our culture. This recent incident demonstrates there is still a need for education about who we are as Native Americans,” he said. “This situation makes us more determined than ever to cast off stereotypes we thought were left in the past.”

“We hope the people responsible for these ribbons will apologize,” he said. “The Choctaw Nation encourages parents and teachers to talk with students to help them understand why accurate representation matters so we can all respect and appreciate one another.

Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Chief Gary Batton

KNWA/FOX24 reached out to Spiro Schools but has not heard back.

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