Medicine Hat High School will be doing away with the 'Mohawks' and 'Kwahommies' names for their sports teams (Photo courtesy of Scott Roblin)

By Scott Roblin and Chantal Wagner

MHHS Name Change

Medicine Hat High School to discontinue Mohawks, Kwahommies names

Sep 3, 2020 | 1:39 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – For decades, the ‘Mohawks’ and ‘Kwahommies’ names have been synonymous with Medicine Hat High School’s sports programs.

On Thursday, Medicine Hat High School announced it will be discontinuing the use of their Indigenous-themed names after months of consultations.

Principal Boris Grisonich told CHAT News that it’s a decision that has taken on new life over recent months with several professional sports teams choosing to do away with names referencing indigenous peoples such as NFL’s Washington Football Team and the CFL’s Edmonton Football Team.

“We felt like we’ve used tremendous respect and dignity. I’m so proud of our alumni, our staff, and our current students. Just treated the name with so much respect. But we feel that what we tell our kids it means to be a Mohawk is through our eyes, not their eyes and so we didn’t think that was fair,” Grisonich added.

There has been no new name chosen to replace the Mohawks and Kwahommies, as the sports teams will go by the name of Medicine Hat High School for the 2020-21 school year.

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According to Grisonich, Medicine Hat High School will use the year to determine a new name for their teams that is “befitting to the staff, students, and alumni who have represented our school so well.”

Grisonich went on to say, “It’s time to move on and come up with something that we still think builds on the strength of our past and build towards our future.”

Medicine Hat High School will also continue to use their ‘M’ logo as the letter still represents the program’s name.

“Medicine Hat High School has always considered our team names to be symbolic of pride, honour, and dignity,” said Grisonich in a statement provided to CHAT News. “We would like to thank our students and the community for the respect they have shown these names. We hope you will continue to celebrate our storied past and support our bright future.”

The school division says schools have been learning about cultural appropriation, whether that’s names or symbols of different cultures.

Corey Sadlemyer, Assistant Superintendent: Inclusive Mindset with Medicine Hat Public School Division says, “I think this speaks to the larger body of work that’s been done by the truth and reconciliation commission and the calls to action that came out of there. I think that we’ve spent lots of time working with our staff and with our students to understand that work.”

Sadlemyer says it’s an important conversation starter in the school and community, “I think of myself as a grade 5 teacher. I taught about the explorers coming to Canada. But I didn’t teach about residential schools which was the truth or another part of the truth.”

As for Hat High sports, the school’s coaching staff says teams will still have the feeling of pride no matter the label.

“It’s still working with the kids, setting up our teams, building our programs, and that’s not going to change. So it’s always going to be Medicine Hat High and whether it’s football, basketball, rugby, or volleyball, it’s always still going to be Hat High regardless,” said the Head Coach of Medicine Hat Football Quinn Skelton

A petition to change the Medicine Hat High School team names was launched by a student in 2015, however, the program decided to keep the names at that time.

CHAT News has reached out to the Miywasin Friendship Centre for comment on the name changes, however, they were unavailable for comment on Thursday.

“When we think about our past, it’s about the people, the connections, the quality of individuals, we put through here, the work that teams did, and we did that representing our name well but the connection is to the school and to the people,” Grisonich added.