Alaskan School keeps 70's name chosen by students.

A school in Alaska has refused to change the name of its basketball team even though the name 'The Halfbreeds' is considered a racial slur.

The Kuskokwim River village which is 317 miles west of Anchorage and accessible only by air or riverboat, has a population of 532 people. More than 73 percent are Alaska Native, primarily Yup'ik Eskimos and Tanaina Athabascan Indians.

The name Halfbreeds was picked by students of Aniak High school in the late 1970s as a nod to the community's origins - white settlers who intermarried with Yu'pik Eskimos, said Wayne Morgan, a graduate of the school and the school board president.

Morgan's fraternal grandfather was a full-blooded German who arrived in the early 1900s. He's also Yu'pik. Morgan figures most Americans are a combination.

Aniak gets calls when school nicknames deemed offensive make headlines. Halfbreeds is considered a slur elsewhere but not in Aniak, Morgan said.

'We see it as who we are, but not as other people hear it for the first time, said Morgan. 'It sounds offensive, but we don't see it that way. It's who we are. Most people are of mixed race, mixed background. We're proud of it. The kids are still proud of it.'

Gary Matthews, executive director of the Alaska School Activities Assocation, who has lived in Alaska for 37 years said 'It's never been an issue with us, the names mean something to the communities or they wouldn't select them.'

Other teams haven't fared so well, the Alcorn State Braves, the University of Utah Utes and 15 other college mascots are banned from postseason tournaments, pending appeal, because the NCAA has deemed their nicknames 'abusive' or 'hostile' to the Indians.

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Source:www.juneauempire.com