A group of parents favoring removal filed an appeal to the New York State Department of Education which issued an order requiring removal of the mascot or lose state funding. After the seating of two new members, the board voted to reverse this decision in July 2021. The school board in Cambridge, New York voted in June 2021 to eliminate the name and logo of the Cambridge High School 'Indians'. Most have complied, but four school districts have decided to keep their mascots Derby Red Raiders, Killingly Redmen, Windsor Warriors and Nonnewaug High School Chiefs. A law was passed in Connecticut which withholds tribal funding provided by casino revenue from any school that retains a Native mascots after July 1, 2022.

In a few states with significant Native American populations such as Colorado, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin, change has been mandated by law. In more recent years, the trend has accelerated, particularly in July 2020, following a wave of racial awareness and reforms in wake of national protests after the murder of George Floyd, and the decision by the Washington Commanders to change their Redskins name and logo. The trend towards the elimination of Indigenous names and mascots in local schools has been steady, with two-thirds having been eliminated during the 50 years prior to 2013 according to the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI). Both support the views of Native American organizations and individuals that such mascots maintain harmful stereotypes that are discriminatory and cause harm by distorting the past and preventing understanding of Native American/First Nations peoples in the present. The documents often cited to justifying the trend for change are an advisory opinion by the United States Commission on Civil Rights in 2001 and a resolution by the American Psychological Association in 2005. These fictional representations stand in the way of any authentic understanding of contemporary Indigenous peoples, and promote racism.

Individual schools may have performance traditions, such as the tomahawk chop, a mascot or cheerleaders in stereotypical Native attire, and chants adapted from Hollywood movies. Other imagery include dreamcatchers, feathers, spears, and arrows. The typical logo is an image of a stereotypical Native American man in profile, wearing a Plains Indians headdress and are often cartoons or caricatures. In a list of the top 100 team names, 'Indians' is 14th, 'Braves' is 38th, 'Chiefs' is 57th. Among the categories of names for sports teams in the United States and Canada, those referring to Indigenous peoples are lesser in popularity only to the names of various animals.

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