Wisconsin’s state Assembly is to vote tomorrow on a bill that would require schools to prove – if someone complains – that their mascots or nicknames aren’t offensive. Some40 Wisconsin schools still have race-based nicknames, although others have dropped them.

Sue Pruessing, who heads the school board for Big Foot High School in Walworth, says she’s not worried.
“We sit on the very beginning of Big Foot Prairie, and the school was named in honor of Chief Big Foot,” Pruessing tells the Walworth County Times, here.

“We relate it to being no different than a school being named to honor John F. Kennedy … George Washington or (Abraham) Lincoln.”

And, she adds, “This was (Chief) Big Foot’s grounds and where his villages were. It’s always been done very reverently in honor of him.”

Big Foot, also called Maumksuck, was the last Potawatomi Indian Chief to live in this area before European settler arrived, according to the school’s Web site.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Big Foot High School, buffalo post, Native American news, Potawatomi, Team nicknames