[xoxoxoBruce]

Whitesboro, NY, is in the news again with their town seal. Amusing Planet says...

The seal was originally designed in 1883 and showed the Indian closer to the ground, and with White’s hands actually on the Native American’s neck. When Whitesboro was sued over the seal by a Native American group in the 1970s, the village changed the image moving the founder’s hands from the Native American’s neck to his shoulders.

The mayor responds...

Although Whitesboro has agreed to vote on it, village officials maintain that the seal is not racist, derogatory or violent, but a very accurate depiction of an important event in the village’s history that helped build relations between White and the area’s Native American population. According to the village’s website, White accepted the challenge of a friendly duel, and “by a fortunate trip” succeeded in throwing the chief to the ground almost instantly. “After the fight, Hugh White became a hero in the eyes of the Oneida Indians,” the website read.

With the flames fanned by websites like this one, where self described...

Mathew Rodriguez is a Staff Writer at Mic. He is a queer Latino New Yorker who enjoys female rappers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Flannery O'Connor.

wrote the following...

Currently, the seal depicts two men in a struggle: A white man with his hands seemingly on the shoulders and neck of a stereotypical feather-in-hair Native American, with the Native American being toppled to the ground, apparently shouting in pain.

Damn, with that imagination, that boy should be a writer. Oh wait, he is.

Then someone starts an online petition ...

I am Lenape Indian and a citizen of both the Delaware Tribe of Indians and Cherokee Nation. I want to express my disgust and disappointment in this image displayed on city police cars and letterhead. Many local nations, like the Oneida, Mohawks, Lenape, Shinnecock, Mahicans, and Onondaga, agree that the logo is very much disrespectful to Native Americans.

...yielding 9600 signatures, one of which commented...

A story about Hugh white beating a Native American in a wrestling match is just as offensive and racist as a seal depicting a strangling and or beating.

Uh Ramon, the wrestling match was the Indian’s custom, Mr White was going along to get along. The scenarios people conjure up are crazy.

Oneida Nation Council Turtle Clan representative Clint Hill, however, said the description of the seal’s portrayal did not seem patently offensive, although he had not seen it in person. The Oneidas typically had good relationships with area settlers, he said, and “Indian wrestling,” in which opponents place their feet together and use only one arm to try to throw the other person, is a common game among friends. “With the so-called Indian wrestling, you just knocked the person off balance,” he said. “We used to do it all the time as kids.”
If anything, Hill said, he would want the image changed to more accurately portray the wrestling style and to show the proper headdress for the Indian in the image. An Oneida would wear one with two feathers pointing up and one pointing down, he said.

Hmm, must have been described in great detail.
Of the 10 or so designs the residents can vote on, these four were submitted by The Daily Show.



Plus the current one makes five, I haven't seen any more.
The polls closed at 9PM Monday night but I haven’t seen any results yet.