The Massapequa Chiefs aren’t going down without a fight.
Over the past few months, the Massapequa School District has been ramping up a legal battle with the state over the legality of their mascot, the Chiefs, which is in question due to the state Department of Education’s Board of Regents 2023 vote to ban mascots, team names and logos inspired by Native Americans in public schools.
While other schools with native mascots or imagery have since agreed to changes, the Massapequa community has doubled down, with community members forming a non-profit, Save the Chiefs Foundation, which raised over $13,000 to support the school’s legal fight in a fund-raiser that culminated in an event held Saturday in the high school’s parking lot.
“It’s our right to keep our logo,” said Janice Talento, the chair of the foundation’s festival committee. “And it’s the fact that the state government should not have a say in a school’s logo or name if the local tribes here on Long Island are okay with it.”
The fund-raiser looked a bit like a Trump fan club on Saturday afternoon, as rap music about the president played while hundreds of community members filled the space, appraising artwork made with Trump and the Chiefs mascot and merchandise with Trump’s name on it, both of which were sold to raise money for the foundation.
The president’s heavy presence at the fund-raiser was due to his recent vocal support of the Massapequa Chiefs retaining their mascot.
About a dozen local businesses, including Center Stage Music, New Wave Sports and Pampered Chef, had booths at the event, alongside right-wing group Loud Majority, which had members selling Trump and Loud Majority merchandise, and Dylan Hittner, a local artist with artwork inspired by Trump and the Massapequa Chiefs mascot.
“I really wanted to create this art to represent what is going on in the real world right now,” Hittner said, adding he has plans to give the president a piece of artwork out of appreciation for his support of the school’s mascot.
The foundation was also selling $20 wristbands for kids to play on bouncy houses, raffle tickets and dunk tank balls to raise money for the legal fees.
One Native American group, the Native Americans Guardians Association, has spoken in support of Massapequa’s resistance to the change, though others agree with the state’s ban. Members of the Massapequa community and school board emphasized that they believe the mascot keeps the memory alive of native communities that used to call the area home.
“I think it’s really important to keep Native American imagery, because much of the foundation of our constitutional principles really derived from the initial interactions that the colonists had with the Native Americans,” said Massapequa School Board Vice President Jeanine Caramore. “I believe that it’s important that we continue to educate, not eradicate, and that we’re stronger together as a country when we recognize everyone’s heritage culture and we celebrate it.”
While some native groups feel the logo does not properly represent them or educate people on their community, speakers at Massapequa’s Saturday event said they believed the mascot was important to recognizing the community’s history and would continue to fight to keep the mascot for that reason regardless of whether Native Americans wanted them to or not.
Tara Tarasi, the founder of the Save the Chiefs Foundation, said the foundation was working with the school board to add additional lessons on Native American history to the curriculum.
Caramore said another reason the board and community oppose the change is the high cost it would pose to the school district. She said the board has calculated that the cost to remove all current Chiefs imagery and replace it would cost roughly $1 million, funds she thinks would be better spent on education.
“It is costly to take the logo off of everything because it’s not just shirts and sports equipment,” Caramore said. “It actually is embedded in some of our floors and walls. It would be very costly for us to have to take it all down.”
Though other schools with similar mascots have decided to relent in their fight to maintain them, Caramore said Massapequa has continued to push their legal battle forward because she believes the logo is truly important to the community and that they have a winning argument.
“For me, this is a matter of fighting to keep our identity,” Caramore said. “The Massapequa Chief imagery and icon mean a lot to me. It truly represents leadership and pride.”
A slew of local politicians, including Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor Joe Saladino, Assembly Member Michael Durso, state Sen. Alexis Weik and Massapequa Park Mayor Daniel Pearl were present at the fund-raiser, lending their words, presence and support to the cause.
Saturday’s large display of support is the latest development in a saga that began in 2001, when the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights called for the end of Native American imagery and team names by non-Native schools.
In 2023, the state Board of Regents decided that public schools needed to stop using Native American imagery in their mascots and logos. Schools were originally tasked with finding a new mascot by the end of the 2022-23 school year, but that deadline was extended until June 2025.
In response to the board’s 2023 ruling, Massapequa and a handful of other impacted Long Island districts filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s decision.
In March a federal judge ruled in favor of the state Board of Regents, dismissing that lawsuit. Massapequa and several other districts subsequently filed notices of appeal.
Now Massapequa remains the loudest voice against the mascot ban.
“We don’t believe in the mandate that came down from the state. We believe that the Chiefs are not derogatory, but kind of celebrating the culture,” Tarasi said. ‘It’s been a huge part of the community for so long.”
The U.S. Department of Education launched a probe into the state’s Education Department in April. The nation’s education secretary, Linda McMahon, spoke at Massapequa High School in late May, and she said the investigation found the state violated the Civil Rights Act and should remove its mascot mandate.
The foundation said it plans to continue fund-raising as long as it takes for the legal battle to be successful.
