Legislation may give Grand Rapids' Thunderhawk mascot another year

GRAND RAPIDS — Months after Superintendent Matt Grose learned the Grand Rapids Thunderhawk was denied an exemption to a 2023 state law prohibiting American Indian mascots, he still has many questions.

“It’s been difficult to get information about which districts are subject to this law, that information hasn’t broadly been made available, the decision criteria hasn’t been made available,” Grose said during a March 8 interview. “So there’s really just a lot of question marks and [I’m] just kind of left feeling in the dark about process and how outcomes were arrived at.”

Grose is hesitant to move forward with changing the mascot because of the lack of clarity.

“I’m not interested in making a decision before we absolutely have to; I’m not interested in making a decision if there’s no funding to support it,” he said. “And I really think we still need answers about why this law is being applied the way it’s being applied.”

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Thunderhawk on the chopping block? District officials say mascot was denied exemption to new state law

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Grand Rapids and other districts still have over a year to comply with the law, and a provision in the Minnesota Senate’s education policy bill would push the deadline to September 2026.

“More than anything, I think it gives us time to get more answers, and another legislative session to try to fix the problems with the original bill,” Grose said in a Monday, April 8, email.

Bills funding new uniforms, signage and the dozens of other things districts will need to update have been introduced but haven’t made any significant progress this session.

Sens. Robert Farnsworth of Hibbing and Justin Eichorn of Grand Rapids introduced a bill in March that would give Grand Rapids $1 million to cover replacement costs. Similar bills have been introduced for Benson, Sleepy Eye and Esko districts, which are also changing their mascots.

Aside from funding, Grose said he is concerned with the inconsistent application of the law. He points to the Warroad Warriors, whose mascot of a Native American man was granted an exemption by Minnesota’s 11 tribes and the Tribal Nations Education Committee. The law requires unanimous approval for a district to keep an American Indian mascot.

“I can’t make sense of that. Our community can’t make sense of that. I don’t think reasonable people can make sense of that,” Grose said. “Whether the law was flawed or not, the application of the law’s been incredibly inconsistent and that’s really frustrating for districts.”

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One difference between Warroad and Grand Rapids that may have been a factor is Warroad's history. The city was once the largest Ojibwe village in Minnesota and is part of the territory ceded to the United States by the Pembina and Red Lake Ojibwe in the Old Crossing Treaty of 1864. Red Lake Nation continues to manage nearby land in trust, including owning and operating one of three Seven Clans Casinos there.

The Thunderhawk mascot, which is a hawk spreading its wings, was denied based on its apparent reference to Chief Thunderhawk, an important figure in Hunkpapa Lakota history and a companion of Sitting Bull in the 19th century.

While Warroad says its mascot honors an Ojibwe chief, Grose said Grand Rapids residents were largely unaware of the existence of Chief Thunderhawk when they chose the mascot in 1995. Rather, it was a combination of two popular options: thunder and hawks.

Grose said he spoke with local tribal leaders who said — speaking on their own behalf — they are not advocating for Grand Rapids to change its mascot. Grose said that should be taken into consideration.

Lower Sioux Indian Community, White Earth Reservation and the Tribal Nation Education Committee denied the exemption, according to Grose.

“These decisions are kind of being propelled from outside our area, and what I would like to see happen is that the local interests be taken into account and that districts be able to work this out with local Indigenous communities and local tribes.”