Three schools I have either attended, paid taxes to or lived near have had such names for their sports teams. The Neshaminy School District (Bucks Co., PA), where I once lived, derives its name from a tributary creek of the Delaware, which in turn carries an Anglo corruption of a Leni Lenape (a.k.a. Delaware) word meaning "confluence of rivers". Their team is the Redskins, and the last I knew have never been petitioned to change it. No surviving Leni Lenape live in the district, either.

The teams of Juniata College (Huntingdon, PA, another former residence) were once the Indians, too. The school is affiliated with the Church of the Brethren, and sensitive to perceptions (and a leading center for peace studies, too). They polled their alumni about five years ago or so, and became the Eagles (which are also indigenous to the area, whereas Native Americans are not).

My erstwhile alma mater, the College of William and Mary (a branch campus of which is attended by our Board Lord, Justin) were (was?) also the Indians. In their case, they derived the nickname from the "Indian school" that was part of the college's original charter. Williamsburg, being a mere five or six miles inland from Jamestown, was once in the territory of the Powhatans, whither Pocahontas.

The mascot - that is, the person in the oversized costume who cavorted on the football field, etc. - was a charicature who could have been designed by Al Capp (cf. the Kickapoos from Li'l Abner), and his cartoon likeness was the teams' logo. Some time not long ago, before I reestablished contact with the alumni association, they compromised: the logo is now just a pair of feathers in the school colors (green and gold) and their teams are, collectively, The Tribe - much more dignified, without completely abandoning more than a century of sports tradition in a school more than two centuries old.

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