After months of discussion, countless hours of stakeholder meetings and multiple avenues investigated to no avail, the Toledo School District will rebrand to the Riverhawks.
The school board made the decision at a regular meeting Thursday night. The school district has used its Inidians mascot for the last 100 years, but new state legislation has forced the district to move forward with a new face.
“We will start the process of becoming the Toledo Riverhawks right away,” the district wrote in a Facebook post Friday. “On behalf of the district, we wish to thank all those who participated in helping us navigate a difficult decision … We look forward to our continued relationship with the Cowlitz Indian Tribe as Riverhawks.”
Earlier this month, the Washington state Office of the Attorney General declined to give an opinion to the school district on whether a proximity exemption laid out in the law would have applied. The district argued because they were located on the land of indigenous people, and because of their proximity and relationship to the Cowlitz Tribe, it qualified to remain the Indians.
But that exemption would have required an OK from the Cowlitz Tribal Council, which Superintendent Chris Rust said hasn’t voiced an opinion one way or the other yet.
With a Jan. 1 deadline looming, Rust said he and the board knew what to do.
“Absent an enthusiastic acclamation that we remain the Indians, it didn’t seem like it would be appropriate to continue. So, I recommended the board formally rebrand as the Riverhawks,” Rust said.
Toledo will keep its signature “T” logo and black and white color combination, but will later this year adopt a new mascot.
Rust said the first step in this process is taking inventory of every jersey, letterhead, business card and item with any “Indians” iconography, phrasing or branding. Rebranding is estimated to cost anywhere from $75,000 to $100,000 in state funds, Rust previously said.
“Once we have all those inventoried, we’ll look at what things we need to replace and what things we need to get rid of,” Rust said. “Everything we do has our brand on it.”
He plans on getting in contact with the regional school district to have it help guide the district through the process. Rust said he hopes to open up a rebranding portfolio in order to get a unique new mascot design that is one of a kind.
“I want something nobody else is going to have,” Rust said.
With football and other fall sports currently underway, Toledo will remain the Indians for a while. Rust said the process “won’t be like turning on or off a light switch. We’re going to be like a dimmer switch. People are going to see the images of the Indian fade as the image of the Riverhawks emerge.”
It’s possible the district could have a new design on jerseys and on most other items this spring.
Rust said it’s important to underscore the cooperation that so many stakeholders had in the rebranding process, including the Cowlitz Tribe, students, community members, alumni, Indigenous people, the AG’s office, Sen. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, and the district staff. Many of these parties had differing opinions from one another, Rust said, but put their faith in the process.
“There’s nobody individually who should be blamed or congratulated for this decision,” he said. “There was no universal agreement on whether to stay the Indians or rebrand, and so that’s why it was so difficult.”
The district chose the Riverhawks over a wide and diverse selection of new brand names. During a community survey, it was chosen as the most popular.
