The Oregon State Board of Education has unanimously voted that all mascots with a Native American origin must be renamed, which includes the Roseburg Indians and Reedsport Braves.

Those and other schools in Oregon sporting Native American mascots must change their logo/mascot by July 1st of 2017 or they could stop getting state funding, according to state officials.

"I'm very shocked,” Roseburg Public Schools Superintendent Larry Parsons told KPIC News. “It's not at all what we thought was going to happen."
   
Parsons helped craft amendments to Senate Bill 1509 which allowed school districts, with written permission from the local tribe, to keep their mascots. "We thought it was a done deal. I spoke with the liaison with the Board of Education (recently) and she said ‘don't worry about it, we're good to go.’"

Parsons says after being told Roseburg High would not be affected, the vote shocked everyone.
 
Now, the school board has a daunting task ahead. "They've said you have to keep the original 2017 timeline for making those changes,” added Parsons. “To change our nickname in that short a period of time, financially, and to do it right and involve the public, is going to be very difficult."

Parsons says they need to assess what the cost will be to start the process, but it may not be a done deal depending on what state lawmakers say.

Susan Ferris, spokesperson for the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, told KPIC News in 2012 that the school and the tribe have a good relationship and a mutual respect.

In February 2014 Governor John Kitzhaber said he'd sign a bill that would allow Oregon schools to retain Native American mascots under certain conditions after state lawmakers addressed concerns that led him to veto a similar measure a year prior.

A story by the Oregonian says a total of fourteen Oregon public schools must pick new names by 2017 following the Oregon Board of Education ruling.

"It's a great victory," said Sam Sachs in the article, one of the activists who has fought to ban the names. "They stood their ground and said we're not going to do it."

One school has changed its mascot -- last year, The Dalles High School dropped its Eagle Indian mascot, playing this season as the Riverhawks.