It is indeed a very sad moment when Amalia Fourhawks has to school our Legislature and those in our populous who remain unmoved by the mistreatment of native people regarding the continuing use of American Indian mascots.

Her eloquent guest column (“Native American mascot ban needed,” June 16) cites many sources to try to dramatize the need for a statewide bill that would recognize that this is a civil rights issue, not a local question that each community has a right to decide. It is very likely there would still be communities and states that did not allow interracial marriage had we not seen this right as fundamental and needing federal recognition and protection via a Supreme Court decision 50 years ago.

The fact remains that our nation has never acknowledged — as a nation, meaning our executive and legislative branches — the genocide of Native Americans. The history that I sought to teach for 30 years to sixth grade students at the Smith College Campus School in Northampton included the extraordinary engineering accomplishment of the transcontinental railroad, but it also included the intentional destruction of the bison to hasten the demise of Plains Indian tribes who were deemed to be “in the way.”

For decades, U.S. governmental policy was the beyond atrocious: “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.” Until and unless we face the full story as this African proverb eloquently expresses — “Until the lion tells the tale, tales of the hunt will glorify the hunter” — we will continue to sanction towns and cities that demean and offend not only Native Americans, but all people who seek justice.

The National Football League team in our nation’s capital is the most conspicuous example of our cultural blindness. The Washington Redskins’ owner has refused to recognize the impact of his refusal to remove the insulting mascot and it is indicative of the level of blindness of which some of our fellow Americans are capable. It is also beyond ironic that it is where our national government resides.

Two years ago, the two sixth grades at the Campus School learned about both the accomplishments and the atrocities for which Christopher Columbus was responsible. On their own initiative a group of students from both classes approached the Northampton City Council and proposed a resolution to change the local celebration of Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day and the council, to its credit, passed the resolution unanimously.

It is way beyond time that our state Legislature pass such a bill that recognizes, regardless of the intent, that the impact on all our people of the perpetuation of Native American mascots is hurtful and harmful. Many of the quotes used by Amalia Fourhawks in her column were incredibly powerful, but this one from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 2001 really hit home: “The stereotyping of any racial, ethnic, religious or other groups … teaches all students that stereotyping of minority groups is acceptable, a dangerous lesson in a diverse society.”

Truth be told, such a bill couldn’t be more essential given the times through which we are living.

Tom Weiner, of Northampton, is a writer and retired teacher at the Smith College Campus School.