Garrett Kirkland took two visitors across the Hiram Johnson High School campus on Wednesday, just after the lunch-hour crunch.<\/p>\n
The ninth-year principal for the Sacramento City Unified School District campus that opened in 1958 stopped in the gymnasium, where a large mural shows a depiction of a Native American man wearing a bonnet and regalia representing the school\u2019s mascot and athletics team name: Warriors.<\/p>\n
The mural strikes different chords. Some see it as an image of honor, bravery and strength. Others view it as something deeply hurtful.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see anything offensive when I see this,\u201d Kirkland said as he guided two Sacramento Bee journalists through the school. \u201cI see pride. I think of Warriors, and I think of pride, and I have students and alumni for years who say they see it the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hiram Johnson High School Principal Garrett Kirkland poses for a portrait in front of a controversial mural in the school\u2019s gym in Sacramento on Tuesday. A petition circulating to remove the mural and the name has received over 300 signatures. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
Lozen Miranda-Brightman sees it differently.<\/p>\n
A junior at The Met High School in the same school district, she has led a movement to change the mascot, a topic raised in last week\u2019s SCUSD trustee meeting<\/a>, where the push for mascot and imagery change has sparked discussion. Miranda-Brightman said she doesn\u2019t see an image of a Warrior in the Hiram Johnson gymnasium \u2014 she said the mural is a racial caricature that is offensive to the Indigenous community. She has gained more than 330 signatures from members of local tribal and district communities to enact change.<\/p>\n The SCUSD also is confronted with a state law passed in 2024 that prohibits public schools from any Native American term that can be deemed as derogatory as its mascot, athletic team name or nickname. Assembly Bill 3074<\/a>, the California Racial Mascots Act, mandates that public schools cannot carry any such traditions past July 1, absent \u201cwritten consent from a local federally recognized tribe.\u201d<\/p>\n This issue is personal for Miranda-Brightman. A tribe member with Cheyenne River Sioux, Otomi, Yaqui and Muscogee heritage, she is involved with the Tribal Youth Forward<\/a> that works at the local and state levels, including cultural traditions. In 2024, Miranda-Brightman and a group of 60 youth with Tribal Youth Forward attended an event at Hiram Johnson. In the gym, she saw the mural and the anguished expressions that matched her own.<\/p>\n \u201cMy grandparents were with me, and what they saw devastated them,\u201d Miranda-Brightman said. \u201cWe\u2019re in the (21st) century. It\u2019s sad that we have to have conversations like this. It\u2019s sad that this hasn\u2019t been taken care of. It\u2019s my culture and my people being degraded, and the feel of humiliation and racism. It\u2019s normalizing racism in an educational place. We have to stop the normalization of racism.\u201d<\/p>\n Kirkland said he is mindful of sensitivity on a campus big on diversity. He said he has not fielded any complaints by any students or teachers in his nine years on campus. He said he would listen if there were such concerns.<\/p>\n Kirkland said the district and Hiram Johnson officials consulted with a local tribe in 1956 or 1957 about honoring Native Americans as a mascot. Kirkland said his school does not use a costumed mascot with a headdress or regalia but does stand by the imagery as something of honor and not insult.<\/p>\n Hiram Johnson introduced its mascot \u2014 Wampus Willie \u2014 in the fall of 1959. The mascot appeared at school rallies and campus sporting events. In a 1959 Bee story, Willie\u2019s outfit was of \u201cbrightly colored feathers and beaded buckskins.\u201d The outfit was made by Hiram Johnson science teacher Tom Wittche. The student who played Willie, according to The Bee\u2019s 1959 story, \u201cis painted with grease and war paint.\u201d<\/p>\n By the late 1970s, Kirkland said that mascot outfit was retired to an old closet on campus. It may still be in there, the principal said.<\/p>\n On this campus tour, Kirkland showed off the three-year-old football stadium that sparkles, and the new baseball and softball diamonds nearby. The campus, at the corner of 65th Street and 14th Avenue in Sacramento\u2019s Tahoe Park East neighborhood, has aged nicely. It is without litter or graffiti.<\/p>\n The campus also includes tiled Native American mosaics that were installed when the campus was constructed in 1956 and \u201957. The school logo has been modified in recent years to show an \u201cHJ\u201d with an arrow and feather.<\/p>\n \u201cWe won\u2019t use a mascot here running around during events as a caricature mascot because I can see that point,\u201d Kirkland said. \u201cThat\u2019s stereotypical. We don\u2019t have a mascot. We have an emblem. I want our uniforms to say \u2018Johnson High School,\u2019 because that\u2019s who we are. If we have to paint over the mural in the gym, we will. But if we have to strip the middle of the football field of the arrow or pull off tiles, is that going too far? And who pays for that?\u201d<\/p>\n Nathaniel Browning, the district\u2019s director of facilities planning, at last week\u2019s meeting estimated the cost of changing the team uniforms, school merchandise and campus signage at $250,000.<\/p>\n To Kirkland\u2019s questions of the football field, AB 3074 does address this: It calls upon facilities bearing prohibited names or mascots to remove and replace them \u201cno later than the next time the associated part of the facility is replaced in the normal course of maintenance.\u201d<\/p>\n This does not preclude a school district from doing so sooner, and the SCUSD board of trustees directed staff to start by removing offensive imagery from the campus as soon as possible.<\/p>\n The language of the law also includes a list of a dozen Native American team names considered derogatory; \u201cWarriors\u201d is not among them, though the list is noted as nonexhaustive.<\/p>\n \u201cThe word Warriors is not offensive,\u201d Kirkland said. \u201cI wish we can focus on teaching and learning, but we\u2019ll abide by anything that we have to.\u201d<\/p>\n Miranda-Brightman\u2019s quest has become her intern project with Tribal Youth Forward. She plans to study Native American history in college.<\/p>\n Tribal Youth Forward director Tona Miranda said the imagery at Hiram Johnson doesn\u2019t fit any tribes that were in Sacramento, or even California. The war bonnet depicted in the Hiram Johnson gym and on the granite stone outside the school since 1997 was traditionally worn by leaders of the American Plains Indian Nations, which includes North Dakota and South Dakota.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want to honor and depict a tribe, it shouldn\u2019t be a tribe that\u2019s hundreds and hundreds of miles away,\u201d she said. \u201cYou don\u2019t honor a local tribal community that way.\u201d<\/p>\n An Indigenous woman from the Yaqui, Blackfeet, Otomi and Chichimeca tribal nations, Miranda recalled the emotions of her group when they visited Hiram Johnson two years ago, and how the gym imagery left an impact.<\/p>\n \u201cOur youth sat there for two hours, and they couldn\u2019t believe what they saw,\u201d she said. \u201cIt made them sick. Some left crying. If that isn\u2019t causing harm, then I don\u2019t know what is.\u201d<\/p>\n Said trustee Jasjit Singh during the school board meeting: \u201cIf you\u2019re not Native American, I actually don\u2019t care what your opinion is on Native imagery and use of mascots.\u201d<\/p>\n Christian Guerrero is the student body president at Hiram Johnson, a senior who is part of the school\u2019s ROTC program with visions of joining the Air Force after graduation. He keeps tabs on campus events and is aware of the mascot issue. Part of his campus role is to listen to students and teachers.<\/p>\n Guerrero said he is mindful of stereotypes and how they can hurt. He said he would like to talk to Miranda-Brightman, The Met student advocating for this imagery change.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing a person of color, I can see the reasons why people are angry about the image and why they want change,\u201d Guerrero said. \u201cTeachers on campus here talk about it, and if (the mural and depiction) is representing the right community and highlighting them the correct way. I can see how some see the mural as a stereotype and not a highlight.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the school president, I\u2019m proud of how we take care of our school, how we\u2019re involved in the community, and the pride of being a Warrior, of being brave. We all come together here on campus for sporting events, rallies and dances, and we have community multicultural night. We care about everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Miranda-Brightman said she is open to dialogue with anyone at Hiram Johnson, including Kirkland. She said cultural sensitivity training would be a good course to introduce in schools.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s needed because some just don\u2019t know how hurtful mascots can be,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Miranda-Brightman said she embraces her culture, including regalia she wears to ceremonies.<\/p>\n \u201cI wear what we call authentic regalia,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Students walk beside a banner that reads \u201cWarrior\u201d with a spear at Hiram Johnson High School in Sacramento on Tuesday. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com History of Hiram Johnson\u2019s mascot, nickname<\/p>\n
Tile murals, which date possibly to the school\u2019s founding, decorate water fountains at Hiram Johnson High School in Sacramento on Tuesday. The school\u2019s principal, Garrett Kirkland, worries that if the school has to change from its warrior mascot, that all depictions of Native Americans will have to be removed. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com
A wall carving, which dates possibly to the school\u2019s founding, decorates a wall at Hiram Johnson High School in Sacramento on Tuesday. The school\u2019s principal, Garrett Kirkland, worries that if the school has to change from its warrior mascot, that all depictions of Native Americans will have to be removed. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
A sign featuring an arrow and a feather decorates the entrance to the football field at Hiram Johnson High School in Sacramento on Tuesday. The school\u2019s principal, Garrett Kirkland, says that if they\u2019re forced to change their nickname from the Warriors, the cost of redoing the sporting facilities which bear the name \u2014 including the new football stadium which was completed a few years ago \u2014 could add up. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
A stereotypical Native American warrior motif decorates a sign in front of Hiram Johnson High School in Sacramento on Tuesday. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com Hiram Johnson student president open to dialogue<\/p>\n
Students wearing T-shirts that read \u201cWarriors\u201d participate in gym class at Hiram Johnson High School in Sacramento on Tuesday. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
A controversial mural features a stereotypical depiction of a Native American at Hiram Johnson High School in Sacramento. A petition circulating to remove the mural and the name has received over 300 signatures. HANNAH RUHOFF hruhoff@sacbee.com <\/p>\n
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