Tribe to switch to Pride
October 20, 2020
For decades, Tribe has been a club for seniors and has had the mission to decorate and spread school spirit for events and activities going on around Manhattan High. This year, Tribe is different not only because of COVID, but also because the representatives have changed the name to Pride.
“The key factor to changing the name to Pride is because of the numerous comments and angry emails from individuals,” senior TriNae Williams said. “They believe it’s disrespectful to the Native American population.”
The Indian mascot has been a big topic of debate over recent years. Many around MHS think the mascot is racist and should not be the mascot of a high school.
“We wanted to be on the same page as the school board and we wanted to be supportive of their decisions surrounding the mascot,” senior Hannah Blodgett said. “Pride was similar to Tribe and we want to try and bring pride to the high school.”
Pride wasn’t the only name that was thought of. There were more, some serious, some jokingly, that were thrown out during the decision.
“We were coming up with long silly names like Pride Spirit Club, Spirit Club and Spirit Community,” Williams said. “They each had spirit in it, which was basic. So we picked Pride, because it was simple and short. We also didn’t want to portray something that disrespects or insults anyone. That’s not our intention.”
The newly-named Pride Club will continue to orchestrate pep rallies, come up with themes for sporting events and decorate posters to display about school with details regarding upcoming events.
“Pride hasn’t really changed anything in the way we operate,” Williams said. “It’s kind of hard with COVID going on. We haven’t gotten to do much.”
Tribe turning to Pride was also not the only change this year for the club. They will also be changing the way it’s run. This year sponsor Haleigh Carlson Jung limited the class to 10 people, compared to years past where more were allowed. Additionally, there will be representatives from the freshman, sophomore, junior and senior classes to assist with projects.
