The Cleveland Indians played more than a century of baseball before woke activists erased their name.
Now Gavin Newsom is running the same playbook on a tiny California school that never hurt anyone.
Marysville has one shot to save a 97-year tradition – and Sacramento is betting they miss.
California Mascot Ban Forces Marysville High School Indians Out After 97 Years
Marysville High School in Yuba County, California, has been the Indians since at least 1929.
The Washington Commanders had 87 years of tradition before corporate pressure ended it in a single offseason.
Marysville is a different story – a small-town school where kids, coaches, and alumni carried that name with pride for nearly a century.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 3074 in 2024, and it took effect July 1.
The law bans a specific list of names that California legislators decided Native Americans should find offensive: Indians, Chiefs, Braves, Apaches, Comanches, Chippewa, Savages, and more.
Schools are stuck footing the bill to change team uniforms, rebrand gyms and fields, and the school’s signage which can cost more than $100,000.
Marysville never voted on it.
Sacramento decided, and Marysville obeyed.
Superintendent Jordan Reeves acknowledged the weight of what was lost: "The Marysville Joint Unified School District Board of Trustees recognizes the deep history and tradition associated with the Indians mascot and acknowledges the strong connection many alumni, students, staff, and community members have to it."
Track and field coach Marcy Tarr, an alumnus who ran as an Indian herself, said: "I do remember the Indian Way and how it was built (with) respect and (to) hold your head high. Indians were good leaders."
The law does include one escape hatch.
A school can keep its existing mascot if a federally recognized tribe gives written consent.
Marysville went to Enterprise Rancheria, the nearest federally recognized tribe, and asked.
The tribe "chose to remain neutral regarding the district's request."
That is not yes.
And without a yes, the Indians are gone.
Marysville Pursues Tribal Consent as the Only Path to Saving the Indians Name
Superintendent Reeves says the district will keep trying.
The school has nothing to replace the Indians name with – only the memory of a tradition that survived 97 years before Sacramento decided it was offensive.
While Marysville was fighting to keep its Indians name, Newsom was cutting a very different deal with Native Americans.
On June 26, a commission backed by Newsom approved the transfer of 136 acres of California coastline to three Native American tribes.
Blues Beach in Mendocino County – a popular stretch of rugged Pacific shoreline the state acquired in the 1960s for a highway expansion – handed over to Kai Poma, a nonprofit representing the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians, Round Valley Indian Tribes, and Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians.
It was the first land transfer of its kind in California history.
State Sen. Mike McGuire celebrated it as "the rightful opportunity to reclaim sacred lands."
California just declared the word "Indians" a slur – the same name a small-town school carried with pride for nearly 100 years.
But handing California coastline from taxpayers to a tribal nonprofit is a historic triumph.
Newsom Called Indians Derogatory Then Handed 136 Acres of California Coastline to Native Tribes
California started this in 2015 with the original California Racial Mascots Act, which banned Redskins in public schools.
Sacramento declared that one word offensive and moved on.
Then in 2024, the list expanded – Indians, Chiefs, Braves, Savages, Comanches, Apaches.
The state didn't ask the community in Marysville.
It didn't consult the 1.9% of Marysville residents who identify as Native American.
Sacramento made a political decision and told a small school district to comply or eventually lose funding.
Marysville is not fighting this out of disrespect.
The coach who grew up there and ran track as an Indian is the one saying the name meant leadership and pride.
Newsom's political agenda has no room for any of that.
He needs Native Americans as a political weapon – strip traditions from small towns that didn't vote for him, then hand out land to tribal nonprofits that will.
The same week a governor who calls "Indians" derogatory gave away 136 acres of California coastline to people he calls Indigenous – the new politically approved label for the exact same group of people he just banned small-town kids from honoring.
Marysville isn't giving up.
But if Sacramento keeps moving the line, the Indians won't just lose their name.
They'll lose the right to fight for it.
Sources:
- Lindsay Kornick, "California high school battles Newsom's state law ordering it to change 'Indians' mascot," Fox News, July 6, 2026.
- Fox40 Staff, "Yuba County school removes 'Indians' mascot in response to new state law," FOX40, July 5, 2026.
- Fox News Staff, "Newsom-backed commission transfers popular coastline to indigenous tribes," Fox News, July 6, 2026.
- Washington Examiner Staff, "California becomes first state to ban 'Redskins' team name and mascots in public schools," Washington Examiner, 2015.
